&gt;  the bulk of the West German economy — which was then being hailed globally as Modell Deutschland — monopolies, taxes, subsidies, and so on actually left its price structure further from the “efficient” optimum than in the moribund Communist system behind the Berlin Wall.<p>This isn&#x27;t really contradicting what I said.  As they say, the gap in the West&#x27;s favor was greatest in the places where the market was relied upon in contrast to a system full of &quot;monopolies, taxes, and subsidies&quot;.  Neither West Germany nor East Germany had particularly market-oriented economies.<p>To wit, the market mechanism efficiently provides a price level but that doesn&#x27;t mean you can&#x27;t mess it up by poorly planned gov&#x27;t intervention in the economy (and to be clear, I mean &quot;gov&#x27;t intervention that is poorly planned&quot;, not that gov&#x27;t intervention is per se ill-advised).