Thorburn no one is participating in the market because interest rates are artificially too low, debt is too high, asset prices are too high and inflation for many services is too high due to intervention from the powerbrokers dependent on low rates to protect their debt position.
The free market has had no say in prices for years.
What you are watching is many quasi nterventionist economies in the west that do not reflect the will of the people but the power constructs from the supply side of the elite.
People eventually will trade the choices for other choices like live or die with the weapon of their choice like in Bosnia
