[asark]

Markets as we know them are products of regulation. That's why "free market" is such a useless term. It can mean anything one likes, including "no" regulation (for certain values of "no"—now let's have fun figuring out what that means). It can mean markets regulated to make them "more free"—greater information transparency and standardization, for example. Depends entirely on your perspective.

"Regulation" is another term that's been abused to the point of meaninglessness, for that matter. It's largely just a synonym for "thing I don't like" now.

[EDIT] it's a bit like "right", which is mostly a term of propaganda, too. Declaring something's a right is propaganda. Declaring something's definitely not a right is propaganda. It may be useful in that role, but it's not especially useful in deciding policy. And yes I'm familiar with from-first-principles attempts to distinguish "natural" rights from everything else. I've even read the Second Treatise. It's all just-so stories, not some law of reality.