Comment by Lambert on The Point of Trade · 2022-07-31T17:30:19.068Z · LW · GW

If the textbooks you've read leave you needing to figure these things out on your own, may I recommend David Friedman's 'Price Theory: An Intermediate Text', readable for free on his website. (I don't know enough about econ to either endorse or anti-endorse the sections that argue against government intervention in markets but it does nicely explain his position on such things.)