I think this is an incredible story, and so far, at least 50% of people who I have talked to (talked at) about it have agreed with me.

These export taxes are cretinous. The Argentine government seem to believe that by taxing farmers' exports, who are currently benefiting from high world food prices, they can fund welfare programmes for Argentina's poor. But that's far too simple. Dividing the pie is only half the story when it's coming at the cost of the total size of the pie, and free trade leads to the biggest pie. Faced with export tariffs, farmers will produce less. What's more, resources will shift to goods which Argentina has less comparative productive advantage in, meaning they produce less and sell less.

I entirely agree with wanting to redistribute wealth - at this point of writing on this blog, I don't think I need say that. But there are less distortive, counter-productive, hell, dumb ways of doing it.

But all that aside, the drama and politics of the whole thing is what really gets me. A split decision in the Senate, a deciding vote by the Vice-President against his boss, complete with the most DUN-DUN-DUUUN of all of speeches ("May history judge me, my vote is not for, it's against" - come on!), and scenes of Argentine farmers celebrating around TV screens like they just won the World Cup (or something important).

Can you imagine that happening in Britain? Or anywhere not in South America?