"Efficient," in the sense in which the term is used in financial economics, does not equate to "desirable": one could, for example, imagine a market in human kidneys that was efficient in the speed with which prices incorporate available information, but that does not imply that it would be good to construct such a market. Nevertheless, that our wider culture's most authoritative source of knowledge of markets has declared financial markets to be "efficient" a word with almost entirely positive connotations in ordinary speech has surely been of some importance.

Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, loc. 1133