I equate market efficiency with competitive pressures. Is this an incorrect association?
Is this an erroneous connection?

There are those who will say that  the competitive pressures to drive rates of return are
themselves one of the requirements for market efficiency.  I think that I am agreeing with
this, when I say that market efficiency has everything to do with efficiency in maximizing the
the rate of return on capital investment. In other words, the issue of efficiency is reflected
in the goal of maximizing the rate of return on capital investment.

Competitive markets do tend to drive rates down; and this is what is often meant when the
 discussion is about what is called a generalized market return. But, a generalized market
return does not always have to mean a downward trend in the rate of return.

What is the difference between a belief that, in a market setting, competition drives rates
down, and Marx's "controversial" contention about the falling rate of profit? If it is said that
market mechanisms do not drive the rate of return upward, that is to say, up to some
maximum, then is it also being asserted that the workings of the market inevitably drive
down the rate of profits?





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