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Management boards have not worked historically. One example might be the Australian Wheat Board. A second example is the Canadian Wheat Board. On the supply si
by pmw2007 8y ago
Management boards have not worked historically. One example might be the Australian Wheat Board. A second example is the Canadian Wheat Board.
On the supply side production management has not proved successful that I'm aware of.
The demand side is a little different. Egypt is the world's largest importer of wheat and GASC (basically the same as the production boards but for buying) has generally been one of the best traders. They're good for the most part. They're generally clever.
Free markets work best in my personal opinion. But for production side I don't see broad-scale management working, while on the consumption side it actually can work.
- btilly 8y agoI find it ironic that your example of "it actually can work" is a country that recently suffered a revolution after the price of wheat doubled due to a drought in another country. What would you consider a failure?
- pmw2007 8y agoWell, there's a lot behind Egyptian food problems beyond trade policy. That's a really deep issue and quite interesting on its own. I merely mean that economically the supply side is harder to manage at a board/national level than the demand side. Has a lot to do with many many producers but only a few companies able to import.
- btilly 8y agoI disagree. The problems managing the supply side tend to be very predictable - they happen most years. So you constantly see problems but they are manageable. The problems managing the demand side are unpredictable. For many years you'll be going along fine, but when you have a problem you tend to have a BIG problem. Of the two, you're better having manageable problems most years and no big disasters than having things usually go smoothly but occasionally you get a disaster.