Craigslist springs up to facilitate low cost transactions between individuals: good!
The market for used furniture booms, allowing people to furnish their houses more nicely/cheaply, while giving a little extra cash to those parting with unwanted furnishings: good!
The boom in used furnitures spreads bedbugs, leading to a quasi-epidemic in some areas: eeeeeeeeeeeeeek!
Now I'm afraid to buy any used furniture at all, other than from an antique dealer. (Which means, I'm not buying any used furniture). As far as I can tell, the only real way to get rid of a bedbug infestation is to throw out practically everything you own. It's not worth saving a couple of hundred dollars on a futon if it means I might have to throw out thousands of dollars worth of other furniture.
When markets fail, we're supposed to recommend government intervention, but damned if I can think of one that would solve this problem. I think we're stuck with Caveat Emptor.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/02/market-failure/541/
