What Is a Fair Trade?

"What is a fair trade?" Lecture to the Fair Trading Commission, Barbados, Accra Beach Hotel, March 14, 2014. I cited the examples of "The man who knew the price of all fish", the Emera purchase of BL&P shares, and the Libor fiasco, to make the point that the market only works when there are actual trades and when prices move slowly enough that today's price is in the neighbourhood of the price of a similar commodity when last I bought it. In cases where there is no trade, or share prices become very volatile, official intervention is necessary, but intervention must always be market‑friendly.