If you’ve spent much time with economics, you’ve heard about “market failure,” an instance when government should step in to correct problems created by freely operating markets.

It’s a phrase fans of big government love to use. In today’s presentation to the John Locke Foundation’s Shaftesbury Society, N.C. State University economist Stephen Margolis revisited the 20-year-old “Fable of the Keys,” a paper he co-wrote to refute a “market failure” argument associated with the standard QWERTY typewriter keyboard.

In the original argument, the QWERTY keyboard won market dominance despite its inferiority to at least one other type of keyboard. Margolis’ work helped expose the fallacy of the original argument for “market failure.”

In the video clip below, Margolis addresses reaction to his findings over the past two decades.?

2:15 p.m. update: Click play below to watch the full 53:38 presentation.

You’ll find other John Locke Foundation video presentations here.