One of the most beloved episodes of The Simpsons is Bart the Murderer, where Bart gets a job working for Fat Tony.  Mixing drinks, cutting cigars…you know, a job.  A hijacked truck carrying cigarettes to Springfield meant an immediate shortage of cigarettes, but assurances from the Laramie Cigarette spokesman suggested otherwise.

This is my review of Innis & Gunn Rum Barrel Red Beer.

Was there a shortage of cigarettes?  Hardly.  Fat Tony was selling them at a price that was practically giving it away for free.  There is a real shortage going around though, on N95 surgical masks due to a combination of inventory practices keeping stocks of nearly every manufactured good at such exact levels any run due to say, a panic buy related to a [probable] overreaction by a totalitarian state on the other side of the world related to a viral outbreak…

…we are once again reminded these same idiots will cry out in panic at the smallest hint of raising the price relative to demand, lest you be accused of profiting as a result of their emotional reaction to a viral outbreak on the other side of the world.  So lets just do what we always do and be apologists for the greedy:

To be sure, there are counter-arguments. At their heart lies the notion that if a demand spike is caused by an unanticipated emergency, allowing sellers to significantly raise prices in response will undercut the morally imperative distributional principle of equal access to necessities. If ten people with the same fatal illness need the two available doses of a life-saving drug, the argument runs, it’s immoral to award the drug to the highest bidders.

This intuitively appealing distributional argument helps explain why anti-price-gouging statutes are both widely supported and strictly enforced.  But as with every regulatory regime, it’s important that we consider the cost. Suppose that our concern about equity in distributing the life-saving drug leads us to forbid the producer to raise prices. In that case, unless the government forces production at gunpoint, we’re going to get less of the drug (or the generators or the masks): the very thing we say we want.  Certainly we can decide to make that tradeoff. But let’s not pretend there’s no tradeoff to be made.

He does go on to argue forcing vendors to keep the prices low will not solve anything—it just leads to a shortage.  Assuming no other barrier to entry, letting the price float will encourage outside vendors and manufacturers to ramp up production to meet the new demand, because a higher price for the good is an incentive.

450%? Screw you. I’m going to learn to swim, then I’m going to make you eat that life guard chair.

Other reasons for letting the price float are high prices remove the incentive for a hoarder to hold on to the goods, because its more valuable to others without it.  If it becomes too expensive to replace, those with the product will be incentivized to not use it, or find a way around the product.  I recall living in Colorado during a panic buy of ammunition when they passed gun control laws.  I couldn’t replace my reserve ammunition as I shot it, so I eventually switched to two other calibers that aren’t as popular (at least for my age group).  That way I am more likely to have a reserve of at least one caliber on hand.  My behavior changed to accommodate the new market conditions.

Yes, moralists will moralize and tell you its wrong because this is about health, and survival, or well-being and leaving these things to the highest bidder is morally wrong.  None of these moralists are going to be upset when they sell their house for hundreds of thousands more than they paid for it.  People after all, will need a house long after this panic is over and selling a house in a seller’s market is somehow justified price gouging.

This beer like anything Innis & Gunn has the desirable charred oak characteristics everyone seems to enjoy about barrel aged spirits.  This being a rum barrel makes it quite a bit different than the usual whiskey barrel aged ales that tend to be whiskey overpowering beer.  Its much lighter being a red ale but still tasty and a product of Scotland, so you can make your joke about sheep. Innis & Gunn Rum Barrel Red Beer:  3.5/5.