One thing to always note, even as someone who’s internationally a neo-liberalist, is to remember to separate economic theory from economic reality:

My conservative friends are fond of telling me that the market is always right. Well let’s look how the market behaved yesterday.

According to the New York Post, after the Spitzer story broke:

“Traders were on such a high that stocks rallied for about a half-hour.”

I don’t know about you, but I certainly trust a market that forgets about the mortgage crisis, lack of consumer spending, our trade deficit or any of the other economic troubles we are facing and values our nation’s companies based on the fact that Elliot Spitzer paid for sex.

/sarcasm

One has to take into account that people are sometimes irrational, corrupt, and misguided in what matters to them and their pocketbook.

It’s also another thing to keep in mind when people try to spout the idea of rational choice.