The Downward Spiral

In case you haven't been paying attention, some scary threats to freedom have been taking place down here in Ecuador.

One big news item as of late is the shutting down by the national police of two Quito based television stations, and a radio station in Guayaquil. The governments position is that the heads of the television stations were embezzling money, and the radio station was operating outside their assigned frequency.

However, the shut down of these public media outlets conviently coinsides with the upcoming ratification of the new Ecuadorian constitution. The televsion stations are back on the air, albit with new managment which I suspect are more friendly to the Correa administration.

In other news, there is outcry over the goverments over existing rules requireing bakers to make available 10-cent bread, a measure designed to make food staples affordable to the poor. However, this price control measure, while it might sound like a nice idea to the idealist, it fails to take into account the global food problem that has caused a price surge in things like rice and flour. The end result is that it now costs more than 10-cents to make 10-cent bread.

As a result, many breadstores now refuse to sell 10-cent bread. The governments solution of course is to shut the bakerys down. I've only one question... how can a bakery sell bread when their doors have been shut by the government? Thats real fine police work there, Lou...

The other option of course is to make the bread smaller, which is the new tactic that some of the bakers have cooked up.

You'd have thought the world would have learned by now that price controls don't work. How ironic that the man driving this shipwreck is an Economist.

"...Ya la patria es de todos." (but not you)