It Can Get Complicated

So legendary wine collector Eric Greenberg had a lot of his wine sold at auction in the ballooning fine wine market of Hong Kong.  But wait, Greenberg is being sued by Billionaire Bill Koch for passing on fake wines from Robert Parker-associated wine merchants from New York, bogus rare wines.  This comes out AFTER the auction.  Ouch.

Fraud follows economic bubbles, as markets are distorted and misallocation of resources gives the needed opportunity to fraudsters.  Here again though, experts spotted the fraud early on, so the burned players have no one but themselves to blame.

The solution is of course in a free market everyone in the supply chain knows and vouches from their source.  In Seattle a mini-scandal erupted when a 100% organic butcher could not actual demonstrate either 100% or organic.  Feathers flew.

The problem comes when people get used to buying from Safeway, and figuring Safeway is not going to mess with its customers, what with award-happy juries ready to fleece the Big Grocer.  So we get used to trusting, our capacity for skepticism atrophies, and in walks scam artists who can back up a semi to our bank accounts.

If we are to return to better food ingredients, we are going to have to whip the innovator retailers into line.  Whatever the facts are, the magazine Stranger did a service questioning the course of putative organic meat.  If the stuff is legit, then Bill the Butcher does nothing but becomes more transparent.  If not, he'll have to get legit.  And either way, it is a lesson to anyone starting up something innovative.

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