Opinion | The Jet Airways crisis as a case of market providence

More than 2,000 years before Jet Airways (India) Ltd looked set to join the ash heap of airline history, Aristotle postulated horror vacui, the concept we understand as “nature abhors a vacuum”. While Hindu philosophers as well as those like Epicurus and Lucretius subsequently debunked the thought, it is a convenient way of looking at where the Jet Airways crisis is headed.

While Naresh Goyal may well choose to believe (and declare), that après moi le déluge—reality may be a bit more banal—even if it hurts his delicate sensibilities. Markets, especially free ones, tend to handle the loss of a single competitor with far greater equanimity than what floundering protagonists themselves display when faced with their unfortunate demise.