Note: This is post #16 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics.

Ten years ago this week, Apple unveiled the iPhone. It’s a product that was designed in California and produced by thousands of people all over the world. How exactly is that process coordinated? How do those people now how much of each part to make?

In this video by Marginal Revolution University, economist Alex Tabarrok explains how voluntary coordination and markets make possible such modern-day miracles as the iPhone.

(If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times the speed. You can adjust the speed at which the video plays by clicking on “Settings” (the gear symbol) and changing “Speed” from normal to 1.25, 1.5 or 2.)

Previous in series:A price is a signal wrapped up in an incentive