The Pajamahaddin Serve No Master

The great Austrian economist Friedrich von Hayek gets some well-deserved credit in an op-ed by Richard Posner:

The charge by mainstream journalists that blogging lacks checks and balances is obtuse. The blogosphere has more checks and balances than the conventional media; only they are different. The model is Friedrich Hayek's classic analysis of how the economic market pools enormous quantities of information efficiently despite its decentralized character, its lack of a master coordinator or regulator, and the very limited knowledge possessed by each of its participants.

Precisely. The Blogosphere doesn't need a North Korean planner or an editor. Its power resides in the very fact that it's decentralized.

Link via Instapundit.