Short answers, pulled from the story.
A market economy functions because factor markets allocate capital and production factors dominantly. Decisions about what to produce and how much to sell rely on price signals created by supply and demand forces. This interaction reaches an equilibrium point called the market-clearing price where quantity demanded equals quantity supplied.
China's socialist market economy emerged after 1978 reforms with state enterprises organized as joint-stock companies. Vietnam adopted similar systems following 1986 reforms characterized as state capitalism due to lack of employee self-management.
The social market economy was implemented after World War II in West Germany by Alfred Müller-Armack and Ludwig Erhard. This Rhine capitalism balances free-market benefits with regulatory measures against destructive competition.
Economist Joseph Stiglitz argued markets suffer from informational inefficiency stemming from faulty neoclassical assumptions. Perfect costless information does not exist in reality despite theoretical models assuming it.
Anglo-Saxon capitalism predominates in English-speaking countries like the United States and features low taxation rates, open international markets, and less generous welfare states compared to European models. The East Asian model involves strong state investment and sometimes state-owned enterprises where governments take active roles promoting development through subsidies and national champions.