From Wikipedia: Golden Age of Piracy

Markets rest on the assumption that things that items that are demanded will actually make it from suppliers to their eventual destination. This entry covers an era when this didn't always happen. It helps explain the development of navies - specifically the British and American.

- Click here for it. 

The Golden Age of Piracy is a common designation for the period between the 1650s and the 1730s, when maritime piracy was a significant factor in the histories of the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Histories of piracy often subdivide the Golden Age of Piracy into three periods:

The buccaneering period (approximately 1650 to 1680), characterized by Anglo-French seamen based in Jamaica and Tortuga attacking Spanish colonies, and shipping in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

The Pirate Round (1690s), associated with long-distance voyages from the Americas to rob Muslim and East India Company targets in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea.

The post-Spanish Succession period (1715 to 1726), when Anglo-American sailors and privateers left unemployed by the end of the War of the Spanish Succession turned en masse to piracy in the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, the North American eastern seaboard, and the West African coast.

Narrower definitions of the Golden Age sometimes exclude the first or second periods, but most include at least some portion of the third. The modern conception of pirates as depicted in popular culture is derived largely, although not always accurately, from the Golden Age of Piracy.

Factors contributing to piracy during the Golden Age included the rise in quantities of valuable cargoes being shipped to Europe over vast ocean areas, reduced European navies in certain regions, the training and experience that many sailors had gained in European navies (particularly the British Royal Navy), and corrupt and ineffective government in European overseas colonies. Colonial powers at the time constantly fought with pirates and engaged in several notable battles and other related events.

From the Washington Post: From airlines to ticket sellers, companies fight U.S. to keep junk fees

Is this market failure? 

Suppliers seem to inflate prices by adding on various fees. I think we've all dealt with this.

Uneven information.

- Click here for the article.

Frustrated with airlines that charge passengers steep fees to check bags and change flights, President Biden last fall embarked on a campaign to crack down on the practice — and force companies to show the full price of travel before people pay for their tickets.

Fliers rejoiced, flooding the Department of Transportation with letters urging it to adopt the policy. Airlines including American, Delta and United, however, did not seem so enthused.

It would be too difficult to disclose the charges more clearly, warned Doug Mullen, the deputy general counsel at Airlines for America, an industry lobbying group representing the three carriers. Testifying at a federal hearing in March, he said the new policy would only cause customers “confusion and frustration” — and, besides, the extra costs for bags and other services historically have resulted in “very few complaints.”

“The department should not regulate in this area,” Mullen added.

Since then, the Biden administration has broadened its efforts to expose or eliminate “junk fees” throughout the economy, touching off a groundswell of opposition from airlines, auto dealers, banks, credit card companies, cable giants, property owners and ticket sellers that hope to preserve their profits.

Behind the scenes, these corporations have fought vigorously to thwart even the most basic rules that would require them to be more transparent about hidden charges, according to a Washington Post review of federal lobbying records and hundreds of filings submitted to government agencies. The fees together may cost Americans at least $64 billion annually, according to a rough White House estimate, underscoring its efforts to deliver financial relief to families grappling with high prices.

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For More:

- Ticketmaster to Show Full Ticket Pricing and Eliminate Hidden Fees.

- How much does Taylor Swift make from Spotify?

Sam Bankman-Fried and Market Failure

As we look at public policy, and the concept of market failure, here seems to be an example of the problem posed by one type of market failure: uneven information.

The problem with fraud is the person perpetuating the fraud knows what they are doing, the victim does not. Laws related to fraud are meant to punish such actions. Bankman-Fried is an example.

- Click here for the Wikipedia page on him.

The public success of Bankman-Fried masked significant problems at FTX, and in November 2022 when evidence of potential fraud began to surface, there was a rush by depositors to withdraw funds forcing the company into bankruptcy. On December 12, 2022, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas and extradited to the United States where he was indicted on seven criminal charges including wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance law violations.

In United States v. Bankman-Fried, on November 2, 2023, he was convicted of fraud and conspiracy, on all seven counts. His sentencing, where experts say he likely faces decades in prison, is scheduled for March 28, 2024. A second trial—for five additional charges, including bank fraud and bribery—is scheduled for early March 2024.

Here's more on some of the charges: 

- fraud: In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compensation) or criminal law (e.g., a fraud perpetrator may be prosecuted and imprisoned by governmental authorities), or it may cause no loss of money, property, or legal right but still be an element of another civil or criminal wrong.

- wire fraud: Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical or electronic mail system to defraud another, and are U.S. federal crimes. Jurisdiction is claimed by the federal government if the illegal activity crosses interstate or international borders.

- commodities fraud: The illegal act of obtaining (or the attempt of obtaining) a certain amount of currency in accordance with a contract that promises the later exchange of equated assets, which ultimately never arrive, is a type of fraud, known as commodities fraud.[40] Alternatively, the term can relate to: the failure of registering in an exchange; the act of deliberately providing falsified information to clients; the action of executing transactions with the sole purpose of making a profit for the payee; the theft of client funds.

- securities fraud: Securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, is a deceptive practice in the stock or commodities markets that induces investors to make purchase or sale decisions on the basis of false information. The setups are generally made to result in monetary gain for the deceivers, and generally result in unfair monetary losses for the investors. They are generally violating securities laws. Securities fraud can also include outright theft from investors (embezzlement by stockbrokers), stock manipulation, misstatements on a public company's financial reports, and lying to corporate auditors.

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- U.S. Code: Title 18.

- Texas Penal Code, Chapter 7.