Clearly, markets and citizens differ in their assessments of the governmental announcements. But more important, they do not express themselves in the same way, nor with the same tools. Notwithstanding the obvious ethical consequences that this pattern of political conduct might have on democratic credibility, it is important to notice that this contradiction is rooted in the differences in the decision- making processes from which the two policies stem. Democracies are based on the equality of rights of their citizens. In markets, each citizen participates according to his purchasing capacity.
Markets institute a sort of qualified democracy in which one dollar is one vote.
These contradictions should neither be ignored nor wiped off. They should be articulated in transparency. The end of the cold war and the virtually global expansion of capitalism have facilitated astonishing political and economic changes. Today we have more free elections and also more free markets. But while democracies have expanded horizontally, free markets have so done in every possible direction.