government direction or oversight. If the coffee crop in Brazil suffers a terrible frost, then the supply curve of

coffee shifts to the left and the price of coffee rises. Some people continue to drink coffee and pay the higher

price. Others switch to tea or soft drinks. No government commission is needed to figure out how to adjust

coffee prices, which companies will be allowed to process the remaining supply, which supermarkets in which

cities will get how much coffee to sell, or which consumers will ultimately be allowed to drink the brew. Such

adjustments in response to price changes happen all the time in a market economy, often so smoothly and

rapidly that we barely notice them.

Think for a moment of all the seasonal foods that are available and inexpensive at certain times of the year, like

fresh corn in midsummer, but more expensive at other times of the year. People alter their diets and
{"title": "Principles of Microeconomics 3e", "total_pages": 597, "upload_timestamp": "2026-02-07T15:37:44.339247", "creationdate": "2022-12-07T14:15:44-06:00", "source": "downloads\\business\\economics\\Microeconomics3e.pdf", "batch_upload": true, "file_name": "Microeconomics3e.pdf", "creator": "PDFMiner", "source_file": "downloads\\business\\economics\\Microeconomics3e.pdf", "moddate": "2022-12-07T14:23:05-06:00", "uploaded_via": "batch_uploader", "producer": "Prince 14.2 (www.princexml.com)", "file_hash": "830b81f41611ac67a490444dbb5d6aed292224606965b06965b914443c93331a", "file_size_mb": 26.99, "file_type": ".pdf"}