the best economics poem I've ever read

this poem was a response by Will Masters (an agricultural economist at Purdue) to a question by a Freakonomics writer: why are Kiwis so cheap in the US?

Damn supply and damn demand:
Why cheap hogs and costly ham?
Bargain wheat, expensive flour,
The oldest villain’s market power.

Just one seller makes us nervous,
Like that U.S. Postal Service:
They may offer bargain prices,
But who disciplines their vices?

Middlemen have long been blamed
For every market that’s inflamed,
Yet better explanations come
From many a Hyde Park alum.

Modern views from Chicago-Booth
Give a nuanced view of truth,
Steven Levitt and John List
Made each of us a freakonomist.

We let data speak its mind
No matter what Friedman opined
And find the price of fruit and veg
To be driven by the market’s edge.

Like the tail that wags the dog,
Marginal thinking clears the fog:
Sellers, buyers, traders too,
Interact and prices ensue.

A kiwi costs 33 cents
Simply because no one prevents
Another farm or New York store
From entering and selling more.

In contrast apples may be dear,
For reasons that will soon be clear:
Picking them’s below our station,
To lower costs we need migration.

Bananas have a different story,
Seedless magic, breeder’s glory,
Cheap to harvest and to ship,
Who cares if workers get paid zip?

Each crop’s method of production,
Where it grows and how it’s trucked in,
Satisfies some needs quite cheaply
While other costs will rise more steeply.

A buyer’s choices matter too,
For nonsense stuff like posh shampoo,
Prices are not down to earth,
The more you pay the more it’s worth.

Behavior is as behavior does,
Maybe some things are “just because,”
Much of life’s a mystery,
A habit due to history.

For prices, though, it’s competition
Plus tariffs set by politicians,
That determines whether we see
Such delightfully cheap kiwi.