As part of that weird fraction of humanity who have read Austrian economists for fun, it is most unsettling when the magic of a free market doesn’t quite extend to “pool shoes,” those clingy $5 monstrosities worn mostly by the girls. (I certainly would have shamed my son out of that shopping trip a few years ago.) I spent two hours on Sunday with my daughter learning that the big-box retailers (Target, Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, K-Mart and several other lesser retailers in northern Virginia) carried every size of these from March to mid-July, as if these are the heavy swimming months. Apparently, once retailers have the whiff of August, you can buy a protractor in seven colors, but forget the pool shoes. I’m sure this is smart mass-retailing, but it can leave the average consumer with a sense of advanced-calendar whiplash. (No pool shoes, but would you like a Halloween costume?) Luckily, the girl found a pair of mirrored goggles and forgot all about the shoes.