Excludable and rivalrous — Tau-flow tokens gate access accurately. Prices propagate Tau-flow cost signals cleanly between addresses.
Excludable but non-rivalrous. Signals work for access but miss shared Tau-capacity. Regulation needed to prevent monopoly rent extraction.
Healthcare, education, ecological commons — non-excludable or common-pool. Tau-signals systematically miss full costs and benefits. Markets cannot self-coordinate.
A market is Tau-efficient when prices accurately reflect Tau-flow costs, signals propagate rapidly between all addresses, and no address can distort signals without Tau-flow cost. Market failure = corrupted Tau-signal propagation.
Trade allows each Tau-address to direct flow where most productive. Comparative advantage is Tau-flow complementarity. Protectionism forces addresses into Tau-weak domains — reducing total throughput.
A monopolist sets prices above Tau-flow costs, extracting Tau-flow tokens without corresponding transfer. This corrupts Tau-signals — other addresses cannot navigate the economy accurately. Monopoly is an epistemic harm.
A financial instrument is Tau-valid when the future Tau-flow it claims has reasonable probability of materialising. Speculative bubbles are concentrations of fictitious Tau-claims. Collapse is Tau-conservation asserting itself.
Negative externalities are unpriced Tau-flow transfers. The polluter directs Tau-flow costs onto third-party addresses without payment. Carbon pricing is Tau-cost internalisation — restoring signal accuracy.
Markets coordinate Tau-flow well for excludable, rivalrous, externality-free goods. They fail for public goods, merit goods, and common-pool resources where Tau-signals systematically miss full costs and benefits.