You are the type of person who ambles through life with no apparent care in the world, but you get the job done. Family and friends worry that you will be run over by a fast-moving pedestrian. Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time at the confiscated property police auction looking to buy either storage boxes for your summer clothes or 500 feet of coaxial cable. Be on the lookout for broken fingernail clippers. You should consider shopping at stores or businesses beginning with the letter P, but do not buy any products with a serial number or product code containing the number 861401. Your preferred shopping venue is department stores. Your special symbol is the at sign (@).

As a Blue Placidola, you are easy-going and even-tempered, calm and composed. For you, the hectic pace of a crowded shopping mall during the holiday rush is nothing, it's little more than a tranquil stroll in the park. Life is good. Life goes on. Why worry. You are a happy shopper and you seldom fret over trivial details of a market exchange, in part because you are astute enough to get moderately low prices and relatively good deals.

Information is not equally available to everyone. Asymmetric information results because efficient information search inevitably stops short of compete information. Some people obtain more benefits from information than others, are willing to incur higher search costs, and thus end up knowing more. Or they incur lower information search costs and have easier access to the information. In a market, sellers tend to have more information about the good than buyers. Asymmetric information gives rise to adverse selection, moral hazard, and the principal-agent problem. These problems can be lessened through signalling and screening.

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Our little excursion through the economy has had, thus far, its ups and downs. My cable bill remains permanently confused and my checking account has a large property-tax created imbalance, but at least the pain in my tooth stops before hitting my toes. I think we deserve a little rest and relaxation at the Shady Valley's own tourist mecca, Happy-Time Gala-World Fun-Land Extravaganza Amusement Park. Let's take a brief respite from our pedestrian trek and give the soles of our jogging shoes a well-deserved rest.

The Happy-Time Gala-World Fun-Land Extravaganza Amusement Park has the world famous Monster Loop Death Plunge roller coaster, guaranteed to make riders yearn for the pleasures of a Siberian forced labor camp. There's also the Enchanted Haunted Horror House filled with serial killers, chainsaw murders, and IRS auditors. For the more timid, and fortunately, for those more interested in the workings of our economy, the merry-go-round is the ride of choice.

Two familiar faces are enjoying the circular trip on their fiberglass ponies. The slender guy with the bushy mustache is Dan Dreiling, the drywall man. I had him repair a hole in my living room wall caused by an over-excited vacuum cleaner a few months back. The disgusted look on his dusty face tells me that I must have overlooked his $100 bill. The other recognizable rider is Pollyanna Pumpernickel a precocious pet store owner who has somehow neglected to pay me the $100 due for hamster-sitting services which I rendered a few weeks ago. Her furtive glances suggest that she is well aware of her liability.
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