the.com/disequilibrium
The economy's way of saying it hasn't finished arguing with itself yet.
means A loss of balance in a system — economic, chemical, or otherwise — where opposing forces or quantities no longer offset each other.
from Built from Latin dis- ('not, apart') plus equilibrium, itself from aequus ('equal, even') and libra ('a balance, a scale'). Libra is the same root that gave us 'deliberate' and the zodiac scales — so equilibrium is literally 'the scale sitting level,' and disequilibrium is that scale caught mid-tip, still swinging.
- origin field
- borrowed from physics, abused by economists ever since
- opposite assumption
- textbooks pretend equilibrium is the default state
- real world
- markets spend more time here than balanced
- not failure
- often just supply and demand mid-negotiation