Title: Free Market Definition
Headings: Free Market
Free Market
What is a Free Market?
Key Takeaways
What are Free Market Economies?
Understanding Free Market
The Free Market's Connection With Capitalism and Individual Liberty
Free Markets and Financial Markets
Common Constraints on the Free Market
Measuring Economic Freedom

Content: With stocks, savings are traded for an ownership claim on future earnings. There are no modern examples of purely free financial markets. Common Constraints on the Free Market
All constraints on the free market use implicit or explicit threats of force. Common examples include: prohibition of specific exchanges, taxation, regulations, mandates on specific terms within an exchange, licensing requirements, fixed exchange rates, competition from publicly provided services, price controls, and quotas on production, purchases of goods, or employee hiring practices. Common justifications for politically imposed constraints on free markets include consumer safety, fairness between various advantaged or disadvantaged groups in society, and the provision of public goods. Whatever the outward justification, business firms and other interest groups within society often lobby to shape these constraints in their own favor in a phenomenon known as rent-seeking. When free market behavior is regulated, the scope of the free market is curtailed but usually not eliminated entirely, and voluntary exchanges may still take place within the framework of government regulations. Some exchanges may also take place in violation of government rules and regulations on the so-called " black market ," which may be in some ways considered an underground version of the free market. However, market exchange is still heavily constrained because, on the black market, competition often takes the form of violent conflict between rival groups of producers or consumers as opposed to free market competition or rent-seeking competition via the political system.