Given all the claims we have made about how beneficial markets and market-based commercial societies are, one might be surprised at the title of this chapter. Markets lead to increased prosperity; exchanges in markets are positive-sum; honest profit is the result of mutual betterment; markets allow inequality in wealth that we should welcome as a reflection of human uniqueness and diversity; free trade is a boon to society and to all parties concerned; and markets encourage the virtues of tolerance, openness, civility, and what David Hume called “sociality.” And the proof is in the pudding: on virtually every way we have devised to measure human well-being – everything from longevity to life satisfaction to peace to prosperity to politeness – the more market-based a country’s economy is, the better its citizens fare. It sounds as if markets are an unalloyed good, perhaps even perfect. Is that the claim?