March 21, 2007
"I, Java"

From Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle, a story of entrepreneurship, war commerce, and an "I, Pencil" type of glimpse into what it takes to get a soldier a decent cup of coffee.

Just what does it take to get a good organic double latte in Balad or Fallujah? A shipping container of whole coffee beans roasted in South San Francisco. A double-wide trailer stocked with espresso machines and driven under military escort from Kuwait. A crew of baristas flown in from India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. And a Marin County man and his brother who make it all happen. Jason and Jon Araghi have built a $16 million business setting up and running gourmet coffeehouses on American military bases in the Middle East, Africa and Asia -- including bases in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.

A cool story, and touching in ways. But the economist in me imagines all the foregone value of having to supply coffee (etc.) to war zones in the first place. Read it all here.

Posted by Edward J. Lopez at 07:08 PM in Economics

The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it. -Adam Smith

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