[WalterBright]

You are correct that there is no friction-less market.

However, lack of information is called "risk", and risk strongly affects what you will pay for something. A low risk deal will cost you more than a high risk deal.

Risk is part of every transaction in a market economy, and is priced in.

[croon]

Ok, branching from your previous post again, why isn't what you're describing happening?

https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2023/03/when-comparing-wages...

[WalterBright]

The article starts out being wrong by using wages rather than total compensation. The latter is the complete pay package, which includes paid time off, health insurance benefits, retirement benefits, etc. These typically add about 40% to the wages/salaries.

[croon]

This doesn't matter when the entire graph uses the same data. The growing divergence isn't because of differing accounting.