http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070208/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_food_crunch

(you may have to copy the whole address into your web browser to get it to work.)

And the Venezuelan government denies that it is their price controls, but is instead the fault of greedy business people.

Morris Coats

It is a standing policy of the Mexican Government to externalize blame, usually by levying it on to technically disconnected but emotionally sensitive USA culture/government/policy/race… pick your choice, they use them all.

We make a huge mistake when our cultural bias lulls into the misconception that Mexico, by proximity, is a Free Market Economy like the USA.

Neither of our Neighbors is willing to allow the NAFTA market freedoms to actually happen.

We delude ourselves to think that it is even their underlying intentions to do so, when they speak of it.

Mexico is a classic controlled economy where the government tasked to give lip service to Free Market Economics is scared enough of the actual economic rulers of Mexico to lash out at the USA rather than to point out their country’s failings.

Canada is Euro-Socialist through and through, though the wilderness & resources do encourage a streak of free market activity in the midst of a “people’s state” idea of society.

Both in the long run will have problems, and as their neighbor we will continue to share in those problems.

Steve W

Again, Steve, thanks for your comments.

Yes, the yellow corn price is a red herring, to draw attention away from the way the intervention in the past, and the present, has worsened the plight of the poor Mexican consumer. But even if white and yellow corn were not interchangeable for consumers, it is for producers. When prices of yellow corn go up relative to white corn, it should draw in white corn producers (to become yellow corn producers). While the white corn prices are indexed to yellow corn prices in Mexico, and so, will not entice white corn producers to become yellow corn producers, the same does not hold in the US, and so, white corn production in the US drops and prices rise in the US, making it more expensive for them to get imported white corn.

But your point, and Paul’s remains: the real issue is the manipulation by the Mexican government and by its benficiaries, or rather, those who own it, those who do not want everyone else see their real profiteering. This manipulation and limitation of imports will, as Paul said, come back to bite them in their burritos.

Morris Coats

The Mexican Government has indexed a Food Product price IN MEXICO (White Corn) to a Feed & Fuel Product price IN THE USA (Yellow Corn)

Release the artificial manipulation of the pricing and the market will correct itself.

As the two types of produce are NOT interchangeable, any babble about USA Yellow Corn Prices affecting Mexican White Corn Prices is simple a “red herring” put out by the Mexican Government in an attempt to mask their artificial market manipulations & profiteering.

Adding on the Ethanol & SUV claims is further emotive nonsense being piled on to further disguise the real issue – Mexican Government Domestic White Corn Market Manipulation.

What some clowns… of course the media will give them a mouthpiece whether the math makes sense or not.

Steve W