Yes, We Have No Tortillas

(Mexico City) I imagine Marxists throughout Latin America are just tickled by this situation. The Yankee gringos are taking tortillas out of the mouths of poor Mexican children.

From AP:

Some 75,000 unionists, farmers and leftists marched to protest price increases in basic foodstuffs like tortillas, a direct challenge to the new president's market-oriented economic policies blamed by some for widening the gulf between rich and poor.

Since taking office Dec. 1 after a disputed election, President Felipe Calderon has drawn his greatest criticism for failing to control the largest price spike in tortillas in decades. Tortillas are a staple of poor Mexicans' diet.

The national uproar has put him in an uncomfortable position between the poor and some agribusiness industries hoping to profit from the surge in international corn prices, driven mostly by the sudden explosion of the U.S. ethanol industry. A free-market advocate, Calderon has said he does not want to return to direct price controls enforced by many former Mexican presidents.

Those with a modicum of knowledge about economics know that price controls lead to shortages. Hey, but not all is gloomy. Maybe Mexico will see the birth of a tortilla smuggling cartel. Hell, the Mexicans already have large operations to smuggle humans, drugs and cash, why not tortillas?