With thanks to Greg Barkimer, who saw this and knew it was gold. Here is an actual headline, seriously, in the New York Times:
“Bird Flu Sends Egg Prices Up, but Slowing Demand Prevents Shortages.”
Well... yes. How economically illiterate would you have to be to write that headline? Answer: illiterate enough to work for the New York Times.
This is on the order of "Water: Still Wet!" or "That Crazy Sun: Rising in the East Again This Morning."
There can never, never be a shortage if prices are free to adjust, because a shortage is insufficient quantity supplied for quantity demanded at current prices.
Lagniappe: This was in the "Science" section. Yes, it was.
Michael Munger
Michael Munger is the director of the philosophy, politics, and economics program at Duke University. He is a past president of the Public Choice Society.