What are the areas of economy where government intervention is considered desirable?

Answer 1

It is possible according to some interpretations for a market economy to have government intervention in the economy. The key difference between market economies and planned economies lies not with the degree of government influence but whether that influence is used to coercively preclude private decision.[original research?] In a market economy, if the government wants more steel, it collects taxes and then buys the steel at market prices. In a planned economy, a government which wants more steel simply orders it to be produced and sets the price by decree. An economy where both central planning and market mechanisms of production and distribution are present is known as a mixed economy. Germany's social market economy was one of the better functioning mixed economies, as microeconomists note that it had relatively free prices compared to other more socialist countries like the United Kingdom for much of the later 20th century.[citation needed] The proper role for government in a market economy remains controversial. Most supporters of a market economy believe that government has a legitimate role in defining and enforcing the basic rules of the market. Different perspectives exist as to how strong a role the government should have in both guiding the economy and addressing the inequalities the market produces. For example, there is no universal agreement on issues such as protectionist tariffs, federal control of interest rates, and welfare programs. Milton Friedman, along with many microeconomists[Who?], believed that too much government intervention and regulation can result in hampering or stopping the transmission of information necessary to allow the market to operate, resulting in very serious government externalities that can lead to inflation, deflation, recessions, and economic depressions. Milton Friedman believes that the Great Depression was the result of a government created externalities and thus was responsible for the causes of the Great Depression