Austrian Economics , Neoclassical Economics , Marketing , and Finance

51 WALTER BLOCK is the Harold E. Wirth eminent scholar endowed chair in economics, WILLIAM BARNETT II is associate professor of economics, and STUART WOOD is associate professor of economics and finance at Loyola University, New Orleans. Block would like to thank David Kennedy, Tony Sullivan, and the Board of Directors of the Earhart Foundation for financial support used to write this paper. Any errors are solely the responsibility of the authors. Block, Barnett and Wood appreciate the efforts of two anonymous referees. 1With regard to the condition of “complete knowledge,” Stigler (1965, pp. 258–59) maintains that brokers can exist in perfect competition: “Or let there be indefinitely many brokers in any market, and let each broker know many buyers and sellers, and also let each buyer or seller know many brokers—again we have perfect competition.” This follows immediately upon his statement that: