Supply and demand is not—repeat NOT—optional

Caracas, July 22 - Venezuela, a traditional coffee exporter that boasts one of the best cups of java in South America, may have to import coffee for the first time ever this year or face shortages, industry experts said. Producers say rising costs and prices fixed by the government have caused production to fall and illegal exports to rise. The government says poor climate and speculation by growers and roasters is to blame.

Venezuela is known to produce some of the best quality Arabica coffee anywhere and, unlike many countries in the region, traditionally consumed most of it itself. But more recently large quantities of coffee have been smuggled across the border to Colombia, where prices have been more than double the fixed 470 Bolivares ($218) per bag that producers are paid in Venezuela.

Perry remarks:

This story provides yet another example of how central planning and price controls always fail. The laws of supply and demand are not optional. Artifically fix a price below (above) the market-clearing price and you create a guaranteed shortage (surplus). Period.

Meanwhile, in the US, Michigan has the highest unemployment rate -- 15.2%. State leaders are looking for a solution. Here's what they've come up with:

A $10 minimum wage in Michigan is the centerpiece of a number of populist proposals unveiled Wednesday by the Democratic Party, which hopes to get some of the initiatives on next year's ballot...

Increasing the state's minimum wage from $7.40 an hour to $10 an hour would give Michigan the highest standard in the nation. Washington state has the highest rate at $8.55 an hour.

The initiative also would remove exceptions that allow employers to pay less than the minimum wage to some workers, such as restaurant wait staff.

Labor unions and Democrats were pushing a ballot plan to raise the minimum wage in 2006, but the Legislature approved an increase before it could go to voters. That measure gradually raised the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.40 an hour, which went into effect July 1, 2008.

Union officials see the minimum wage as a quality of life issue for hourly workers, but business groups say many employers, especially small businesses, can't afford another increase.

So the state is bleeding jobs, and Democrats' solution is to price-fix wages even higher so that hiring low-skill workers becomes even more expensive, resulting in a greater labor surplus—more unemployment. Unfuckingbelievable!

Any economist worth a dime will explain how the minimum wage reduces employment. But the Democratic Party and labor unions, they think they know better. Cough. Gag. Spittle.



(via Free Exchange)

Parties, countries, popularity

Ambers wrote:

My Republican friends keep asking me when I’ll take the GOP seriously again and why I’ve stopped writing about ticky-tak political gamesmanship and GOP consultant tricks. When they’re a serious party with serious ideas, then we can talk

Mark Hemingway protests:

To support his decision to ignore Republican politics, Ambinder cited poll numbers straight from a liberal blog that supposedly demonstrate that Venezuela — not specifically the country’s socialist government, but the country as a whole — has a higher approval rating than the Republican party. Of course, the same meaningless CNN polling data also show that Americans have a higher opinion of Turkey than of the Democratic party. Maybe Ambinder can explain what that means — perhaps Armenians and Kurds are underrepresented in the polling sample?

Link blag

One American interrogator killed herself...

"Peterson objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed."

NYT editorial explains the silliness of the Right's preoccupation with shaking Chavez' hand.

naked capitalism: Enjoy dollar hegemony while it lasts.

Connecticut legislates gay marriage, meaning all the misplaced cries of judicial fiat hold even less water.

Sen. Jim Webb says marijuana legalization should be on the table. Any year now, sanity threatens to break out.

Nate Silver divides Texas.

Mt. Everest gets cell phone service.

Human lungs breathing outside the body (video)

Republicans less popular than Venezuela

Yglesias:

Chris Bowers has an interesting post that helps put the current right-wing freakout over shaking hands with Hugo Chavez in perspective. If you compare the favorable/unfavorable numbers on the GOP in the latest CNN poll and compare them to CNN’s recent survey of what Americans think about foreign countries you’ll see that there are more Venezuela fans in the United States than people who like the GOP

Obama and Chavez

LGF calls this picture "absolutely sickening".

Without seeing a video of their conversation I'm not so convinced. I don't think it makes sense to rebuff leaders of other nations just because we disagree with their politics.

Update: The London Times has a story on the meeting. I don't see anything to object to there.

Update II: Politico says Obama walked over to introduce himself.

HuffPost has a video of Obama speaking of Cuba.

And finally, I didn't realize websites like this one still existed.

Link blag

In a statement, the White House tries to thread the needle on Iowa:

"The President respects the decision of the Iowa Supreme Court, and continues to believe that states should make their own decisions when it comes to the issue of marriage. Although President Obama supports civil unions rather than same-sex marriage, he believes that committed gay and lesbian couples should receive equal rights under the law."

Drezner:

[...] On style, Obama does get an A-. I loved this bit from Helene Cooper's NYT story: "In a rare show of emotion from the international press, many in the room stood up and cheered after Mr. Obama was done [with his press conference]." C'mon, an American was on the global stage and not one shoe was thrown? Man, times have changed. Meawhile, as for Michelle Obama, there's this priceless AP quote from a Buckingham Palace spokesman: "We don't issue instructions on not touching the queen."

WSJ: U.S to Lift Some Cuba Travel Curbs...

President Barack Obama plans to lift longstanding U.S. restrictions on Cuba, a senior administration official said, allowing Cuban-Americans to visit families there as often as they like and to send them unlimited funds.

The gesture, which could herald more openness with the Castro regime, will fulfill a campaign promise and follows more modest action in Congress this year to loosen travel rules.

reason: Too Crazy to Fail...

The dynamic duo of global finance, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan jefe Hugo Chavez, cut the ribbon on the Iran-Venezuela Joint Bank today. Speaking in Tehran, Chavez spoke of his economic model: "Capitalism needs to go down. It has to end. And we must take a transitional road to a new model that we call socialism."

David Frum: Obama's formula for disaster...

[...] In these and so many other ways, President Obama is building an economy for the 21st century of accreting waste and inefficiency, massive bureaucracy, slower productivity growth, and lagging prosperity.

I don’t blame him for borrowing the money to blast the U.S. and world economies out of their current rut. I blame him for accompanying his borrowing with a slew of long- discredited statist interventions. These will hugely burden those future Americans who inherit the job of paying off his debt.

I second that.

Obama answers question about America's standing in the world (video)

Mint.com: A visual guide to inflation

Wal-Mart deserves a Nobel peace prize?

CNET gets a look inside Google's servers, which all have their own 12V UPS battery! They've come a long way since 1998.

Rocketboom: If time was infinite and space was finite... (video)