Saturday, June 2, 2012

Mubarak, Bread and Life

Gift of the Nile
In other news on this fateful day in modern Egyptian political history, a policy breakdown with a much more immediate impact is eating into the most essential part of life for the vast majority of Egyptians:  getting bread on the table.  Stemming from an ill-conceived control and command system fancifully designed to make Egypt self sufficient in wheat production, inflated prices offered for local wheat production are creating a cash machine for traders re-labeling foreign grown wheat as Egyptian. As consequence, the state treasury is wasting billions of scare dollars on procurements to support a hopelessly designed food subsidy system, further billions to support a hopelessly designed fuel subsidy system to run the plows and pump scarcely available water on limited arable lands, and millions and millions more on a vast bureaucracy to enforce this madness.

While the pin-headed "revolutionary socialists" and Cairo bureaucrats cheer on the "food security" program that discriminates grain by nationality and lines the pockets of insiders, the vicious cycle of inefficiency goes on and on.

Where is the revolution? 

Not here

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