Don't listen to the "experts"

This article in todays NY Times tells a fascinating story of how the "free markets are God" crowd forced Malawi to give up fertilizer subsidies causing the entire nation to nearly starve to death. Once the government re-instituted fertilizer subsidies, the country not only became self-sufficient, but is supplying other African countries with its surplus crop:

LILONGWE, Malawi — Malawi hovered for years at the brink of famine. After a disastrous corn harvest in 2005, almost five million of its 13 million people needed emergency food aid.

But this year, a nation that has perennially extended a begging bowl to the world is instead feeding its hungry neighbors. It is selling more corn to the World Food Program of the United Nations than any other country in southern Africa and is exporting hundreds of thousands of tons of corn to Zimbabwe.