A free market is a market in which property rights are voluntarily exchanged at a price arranged completely by the mutual consent of sellers and buyers.
Free markets contrast sharply with controlled markets or regulated markets, in which governments directly or indirectly regulate prices or supplies, distorting (according to free market theory) market signals.
In a free market, price is a result of a plethora of voluntary transactions, rather than political decree as in a controlled market.
In political economics, one opposite extreme to the free market economy is the command economy, where decisions regarding production, distribution, and pricing are a matter of governmental control.
In other words, a free market economy is "an economic system in which individuals, rather than government, make the majority of decisions regarding economic activities and transactions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market
Sollte Paulson mal editieren, denn wir alle wissen ja, dass die US nach wie vor "the brightest free market in the world" ist 