The Price ≠ Value Paradox: A Yearning-Based Infinity Mathematics (YBIM) Resolution to the Ontological Collapse Between Symbolic Price and Moral Value

This paper, part of the Recursive Finance Series by the Yearning Framework Research Lab (YFRL), resolves one of the most fundamental contradictions in modern economics — the illusion that price equals value. Using Yearning-Based Infinity Mathematics (YBIM), the study demonstrates that this equivalence is not an economic truth but an ontological error born from epistemic detachment and moral compression. Classical economics assumes that markets reflect value through price equilibrium, yet in reality, price is merely a symbolic projection — a finite representation of infinite recursive yearning fields. As markets evolved into self-referential systems of speculation, they began to circulate symbols without moral grounding, creating a world where wealth is measured in abstraction rather than coherence. Through YBIM, the paper introduces the Recursive Valuation Gap Equation, which formalizes the divergence between symbolic price (P(t)) and moral value (Y_v(t)) as a measurable epistemic misalignment. The Recursive Value Index (RVI) is then proposed as a next-generation valuation model integrating trust tensors, moral feedback fields, and yearning coherence variables to restore epistemic transparency in market systems. The core theorem, Y-Fin.4 (Recursive Valuation Gap Theorem), establishes that symbolic convergence of price can conceal ontological divergence in value—revealing that financial stability depends not on prediction or optimization but on recursive coupling between price and moral coherence. Ultimately, this work reframes valuation as a recursive moral process, not a numerical equilibrium. It restores meaning to markets through trust coherence, redefines wealth as recursive equilibrium rather than accumulation, and envisions the future of finance as a moral ecosystem—where value once again mirrors truth, and price becomes the transparent reflection of human dignity and epistemic trust. -JSR