 Don't miss out, get your free copy of Dr. Guido Holtzman's How Inflation Destroys Civilization. Visit Mises.org slash Issues Free, and we'll send you the book. Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Minor Issues Podcast. I'm Mark Thornton at the Mises Institute. Well we've had lots of events in the news over the last year or so regarding canals and channels. First, the Panama Canal has dried up and shipping traffic has slowed to a trickle. The Suez Canal has been blocked by the pesky Hutu rebels using speed boats and militarized toys to stymie the U.S.-led Ten Nation Military Force and naval armada trying to protect oil tankers and cargo ships. The Barge Bridge collision recently in Baltimore Harbor has impacted cargo flows in one of the nation's top shipping centers. It is expected to take the government years to repair the bridge. These are some of the major choke points that otherwise greatly facilitate the flow of international transit of goods and raw materials. But what does that all mean? The question has not been raised much in the current news cycle, but I did hear this morning that there was at least one analyst that is concerned that it might cause inflation, price inflation, to head higher. Perhaps later in the year we will hear that it might disrupt Santa's delivery of Christmas presents. Certainly it will be mentioned when price inflation and interest rates head higher and stock markets in the U.S. dollar fall lower. It might be used to justify yet another round of deadly Federal Reserve policy or even war. Before we break into an important story, let's first recount some important facts. Number one, shipping companies are extraordinarily efficient economic calculators. The product owners, transportation companies, freight forwarders, and insurers form a tight web of intricate calculations that minimize cost and risk, minimize the price of getting things from point A to point B, giving existing conditions. They must studiously follow all the contracts as well as the intricate burdens of government regulations and encumbrances, as well as fees and taxes. The ships are worth more than a hundred million dollars, and the cargo is often worth at least that much. Two, all three of these choke points are controlled by governments. And in all three cases, they have not been well maintained or upgraded to modern times and standards. Government investment has been sorely lacking relative to the supposed importance of getting vital goods and materials where they need to be. Three, all three of these mishappened checkpoints could have been avoided. The situation in the Panama Canal is the result of the normal El Nino-driven dryness period, and little or no effort has been made by government over many decades to address this ongoing issue. The same might be said about Baltimore. Ships are getting bigger and more dangerous. Trade has grown even more important to our standard of living, but obviously little has been done to prevent the problem involved in the real possibility of a ship coming in contact with a bridge. The problem of the Suez Canal was a choice of the U.S. government as well as other governments made in foreign policy. All these governments seem to enjoy war and conflict at the expense of their own citizens. The U.S. government has chosen a foreign policy path to support one set of nations and to oppose another set of nations that are in an ongoing war with one another. A policy of neutrality towards both sets of nations could have prevented this situation from occurring, but our foreign policy blunder is now almost a century-long debacle, and there probably are no quick fixes. The final and most important channel on my radar is the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East. It is the choke point of the Persian Gulf region, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, which represents the flow of at least 20 percent of all liquid natural gas exports in the world and up to 30 percent of all the world's oil exports. Our foreign policy has put this choke point and the goods that transit through it at imminent risk. There appears much more conflict on today's horizon in that region. I am not aware of any peace negotiations.