In the first week of June we were told to expect egg shortages. The avian flu had infected millions of hens: egg production would plummet.
This was news, reported as “Egg Rationing in America Has Officially Begun.” The Washington Post cited a few signs in Texan retail groceries warning customers that the stores were not in the wholesale biz, supplying eggs for restaurants and the like.
And then the follow-up: On Tuesday the New York Times reported, “Bird Flu Sends Egg Prices Up, but Slowing Demand Prevents Shortages.”
Author Stephanie Strom is probably not responsible for the title. Her copy was not horrible.
It’s hard to get over the title, though. Economist Mike Munger offered his reaction headline: “NY Times Causes Head of Mungowitz to Explode.”
Why?
One word: “but.”
The title should have read, “Bird Flu Sends Egg Prices Up, So Naturally Slowing Demand Prevents Shortages.”
Why that “slowing demand”?
I’ll let Munger explain it:
There can never, NEVER be a shortage if prices are free to adjust. Because a shortage is insufficient supply at current prices. Lagniappe: This was in the “Science” section. Yes, it was.
People buy less when prices rise. So those who value eggs less cede those humpy dumpties to folks who want them more. Fitting. Harmonious!
So the title was witless, Munger insists, “on the order of ‘Water: Still Wet!’ or ‘That Crazy Sun: Rising in the East Again This Morning.’”
I like “good news” stories. Too bad the Times wasn’t quite up to delivering the good news that was clearly fit to print.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on “Prophecy Failed”
The government existed, and manipulated, long prior to the explanation of the Scohlastics’ and Adam Smith of the natural human inter reaction we label the market.
It is not surprising the NYT would miss the market forces at work as they are normal, expected and inevitable, but quite ordinary. Not “news” except to the unobservant or those who object to and seek To modify the natural order of things.
Early mornings I sometimes turn on a local news satation for weather etc. A rather useless left over habit. The copy writer though persists in using one word in the “economic” report over and over that drives me bonkers. Example:”XYZ product is now higher as companies JACKED up their prices because etc.” Sigh. Shows how much education still needs to be done.
The headline could have and perhaps should have read “Free Market Works to Handle a Problem Without Government Intervention “. But socialist writers would never have that occur to them. As Orwell opined, “It takes tremendous amounts of energy to see what is in front of your nose.”