By Elin McCoy, Bloomberg News

It’s that time again.

I’ve been paging through my 2025 tasting notebooks, reviewing how many good and great wines I’ve sipped, as well as the number of boring overpriced duds. This year, my total of reds, whites, rosés and sparklers hit 2,874, from 26 countries. Admittedly, I sampled only a few from Moldova, Bolivia and Peru, but I plan to up that in 2026.

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In my annual top 50 buys under $50, I’ve tried to highlight wines new to me along with perennial bargains. My biggest sticker shock was how few Champagnes are still available at this price point, even on sale. I had to cheat a little to get one favorite in.

Although I sampled a surprising number of good value chardonnays this year (is that because of grape oversupply?), under-the-radar varietals and regions are where to look. Think the Languedoc-Roussillon in France, Ribeira Sacra in Spain, all of Portugal and South Africa, the Lodi region in California, the Finger Lakes in New York and more I’ll tell you about in 2026.

Unhappily, in the US, tariffs on European Union wines, rising interest rates and increased shipping costs have led to slimmer selections and some price hikes. Will the US Supreme Court knock down those tariffs on wine? Keep your fingers crossed. In the UK, increases in duty on alcohol volume (lower levels pay less) and packaging fees mean costlier bottles. Average prices are listed for both regions when possible.

A few tips: When you see a good buy, don’t wait. And remember that retailers frequently offer discounts, especially on Champagne, before the holidays and throughout January. Cutting back? Click through here for quality nonalcoholic options.

Fun fizz

Top sparkling bargains, including pét-nats, come from almost every continent.

NV Graham Beck Brut Rosé Méthode Cap Classique South Africa (US $20, UK £15) Fun, flirtatious, festive — this pale pink South African rosé fizz brims with bright strawberry fruit. It’s made the same way Champagne is, and it’s my favorite big party pour.

NV Keush Origins Brut (US $24, UK £21) Armenia is now creating exotic bubbly from grapes you’ve never heard of, Voskehat and Khatouni in this case. This big value sparkler by Keush would be twice the price if it had a different address.

NV Langlois Crémant de Loire Réserve Brut (US $25, UK £22) French crémants are ideal Champagne alternatives, made by the same traditional method but from different grapes that depend on the region. In the Loire Valley this means chenin blanc. This creamy textured example is a fine partner to food.

2023 Bosman Family Vineyards Méthode Ancestrale Chenin Blanc (US $27, UK £19) Made by a South African family dedicated to environmental sustainability, this is the ultimate feel-good brunch pét-nat, and it’s an approachable, lively natural wine for nonbelievers.

NV Clothilde Davenne Crémant de Bourgogne Extra Brut (US $32, UK £22) This Burgundian crémant is a chardonnay-pinot noir blend from chilly Chablis territory. It’s aperitif style: light, crisp and chalky, perfect with savory gougères, salty potato chips or sushi.

NV Louis Pommery Brut England (US $38, UK £28) Pommery was the first major Champagne house to release an English sparkling wine. It’s frothy and light, pure and floral, with green apple overtones. It’s not a wow fizz, but it’s oh so stylish. Winter wedding, anyone?

When only Champagne will do

Nonvintage blends from little-known growers still offer the best values, but entry-level cuvées from the big brands are frequently discounted right before the holidays. US and UK merchant Berry Bros & Rudd offers an excellent grand cru Champagne, under their own label, at US $50, UK £37.

NV Ployez-Jacquemart Extra Quality Brut (US $41, UK £44) The emblem fizz of this almost century-old grower Champagne house is a rich, round, complex cuvée of premier and grand cru wines.

Pierre Moncuit Blanc de Blancs Hugues de Coulmet Brut (US $45, UK £40) A fresh, citrusy all-chardonnay Champagne is the classic aperitif before a grand dinner. This appealing cuvée wafts up aromas of dried flowers and warm pastry, and provides a crispy zing to prime your taste buds.

NV Champagne Ponson Premier Cru Brut (US $48, UK £38) The once overlooked meunier grape has a starring role in this grower bubbly, contributing a vivid fruitiness and richer texture.

NV Champagne Chavost Blanc d’Assemblage Brut Nature (US $50, UK £35) The chef de cave, a darling of Paris natural wine bars, works with a collective of organic growers in a new model of a cooperative. This fizz has red fruit aromas, a label like an old-fashioned children’s book and no added sulfur.

NV Champagne Palmer La Réserve (US $50, UK £40) If you like an almost opulent Champagne with soft bubbles, the winery’s renamed signature blend is for you. It has a layered richness that’s rare in less expensive bottlings.

NV Billecart-Salmon Brut Le Réserve (US $56, UK £45) A bit out of price range (shhh!), but this well-known Champagne house has been in the throes of change. It’s now certified organic, the quality has risen, and the reimagined basic cuvée is drier, livelier and more seductive and charming.

White wines

From light, bright aperitifs to elegant, rich wines for a grand dinner.

2024 Aia Vecchia Vermentino (US $15, UK £15) Crisp, salty and grapefruity, this vermentino from coastal Tuscany is my light refrigerator white for sipping while cooking. Think of vermentino as the new sauvignon blanc.

2024 Apollo’s Praise Dry Riesling Lahoma Vineyard (US $17, UK £35 for 2023) With its first vintage (2023), this Finger Lakes winery grabbed global attention — and mine. A basic dry riesling of this quality, with white flower aromas, intense fruit balanced with mineral overtones and some elegance, at this price? Simply astonishing.

2024 Familia Deicas Atlantico Sur Albariño (US $19, UK £19) Cool coastal Uruguay has become one of the most exciting regions for albariño outside of Spain’s Galicia. This one has the peachy round character and electric acidity I love about this varietal.

2024 Terra Alpina Chardonnay (US $19, UK £16) Northern Italian producer Alois Lageder’s latest project is creating mouthwatering whites in partnership with organic growers in the rugged Dolomites. This spicy, slightly smoky chardonnay has Golden Delicious apple appeal.

2023 Guilhem and Jean-Hugues Goisot Bourgogne Aligoté (US $20, UK £22.50) Even though wines from aligoté, Burgundy’s other white grape, are getting more expensive, the Goisot family west of Chablis delivers a low-cost example with crisp, flinty minerality.

2023 Familia Zuccardi Chardonnay Q (US $21, UK £17 at Tesco) Feel good while drinking this Argentinean white: The winery is a global sustainability leader. The regional Q line chardonnay offers more sense of place than most inexpensive examples and shows off lovely apple and stone fruit notes.

2022 Marchelle Old Vines Colombard (US $23) The lush texture and dried mango nuances of this tart, fresh white blew me away. Celebrated California winemaker Greg LaFollette nursed the century-old colombard vineyard back to health.

2024 Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc (US $24, UK £20) New Zealand “savvy” is still a deal. Dog Point’s is on a whole different level than supermarket brands. Relish its savory citrusy notes, chalky texture and zesty acidity with raw oysters.

2022 Tasca d’Almerita Tenuta Regaleali Nozze d’Oro (US $29, UK £30) Sicily is a perennial source of bargains, and this reliable producer’s blend of local grape Inzolia and sauvignon blanc never fails. I love its bitter almond aromas and wild herb and citrus taste.

2023 La Garagista What There Was (US $32) The latest from Vermont’s pioneer of natural winemaking is a refreshing white from hybrid grape Brianna that mirrors the year’s weather challenges. The idea is to start a conversation about climate change. So, drink and talk!

2021 Oremus Tokaji Furmint Mandolas (US $32, UK £24) Hungary is noted for expensive sweet wines, but producers are increasingly using furmint grapes for dry ones. Mandolas’ combo of flint and ginger aromas and vivid mineral and apricot notes is wrapped in lush texture.

2023 Symington Casa de Rodas Alvarinho Vinho Verde (US $36) This is the first vintage of a sophisticated, complex white from the Symington port family and winemaker partner Anselmo Mendes. It’s delicious and comes with history too. The casa was built in 1566.

NV Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana Manzanilla en Rama (US $37, UK £20) “En rama” means a sherry that’s bottled straight from the cask, so it has more character and flavor. This delicate, dry manzanilla, made from palomino grapes in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, has a subtle nutty and salty tang.

2022 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis (US $40, UK £27) Flinty minerality and edgy acidity make Chablis the best wine with oysters and any other shellfish. Plus, as white Burgundy prices rise, it still offers value.

2021 Centennial Mountain Vineyards Carricante ($45) Venture capitalist Kevin Harvey made a splash with his Rhys pinot noirs. Recently he planted the first Mount Etna varieties in Sonoma. The white carricante is a stunner: tangy, zingy, charged with energy.

2022 Domaine de Montille Bourgogne Blanc Le Clos du Château (US $45, UK £32) This famous estate has a couple of Bourgogne blancs, and this one from a special walled vineyard in front of the château drinks like a grander white. Call it a baby Puligny-Montrachet. It’s all lemon cream and wet stone, with a kiss of oak.

Red wines

From light and lively to big and bold.

2024 Badia a Coltibuono Labedia Chill Ya Jolo Labadia (US $19) This new, playful, chillable red from a historic Chianti Classico estate delivers charm and food-friendly freshness. Made from the little-known ciliegiologrape (get it?), it’s light and positively gluggable. (UK, check Chambers & Chambers.)

2023 Château Combel-la-Serre Cahors Le Pur Fruit du Causse (US $20, UK £22) If you want a big, bold, ripe red that’s still fresh and bright, this malbec from an organic estate in Cahors, the grape’s original French home, is more than satisfying for the price.

2023 Avignonesi Rosso Da-Di (US $23, UK £24 for 2022) The biodynamic Italian estate’s Da-Di wines (there’s a white too) started as experiments. This mouthwatering blend of five red grapes was aged in amphorae and has aromas of violets.

2022 Guímaro Camino Real (US $24, UK £27) Just about everyone loves the lushly fruity reds made from the mencia grape. This velvety, surprisingly complex Spanish version from trendy Ribeira Sacra also contains heirloom varieties grown in steep terraced vineyards.

2023 Bedrock Wine Company Old Vine Zinfandel (US $25, UK £30) Winemaker Morgan Twain-Peterson is one of the saviors of California’s old vineyards. Grapes from nine of them go into this savory red with rich raspberry and plum aromas. Zinfandels are woefully undervalued.

2022 Vasse Felix Filius Cabernet Sauvignon (US $25, UK £20 for 2021) Margaret River in Western Australia is prime territory for surfers and memorable cabernets. Lovely herbal notes combine with rich sleek fruit in this one, and the tannins promise it will age brilliantly.

2022 Hermann J Wiemer Cabernet Franc (US $27, UK £30) I’m a huge Cabernet franc fan, and this New York state winery makes a couple of my favorites. This one is like a light, quaffable Loire Valley red, and Wiemer’s Magdalena Vineyard bottling is more serious and age-worthy.

2023 Le Volte dell’Ornellaia (US $30, UK £29) For wine insiders, this is the not-so-secret value buy from Super Tuscan icon winery Ornellaia. The blend proportions vary, but this fresh, earthy, spicy vintage is mostly cabernet. Save it for a grand dinner.

2021 Château d’Aussières (US $30 for 2020, UK £27) The flagship red from the Corbières estate owned by Château Lafite Rothschild is a wine worth twice the price. It’s a rich, ripe, satisfying Rhône-style blend, overlaid with Bordeaux polish.

2021 Le Ragnaie Rosso di Montalcino (US $30, UK £25) Often dubbed “baby Brunello,” affordable Rosso di Montalcino is released and ready to drink sooner than its brother. The Ragnaie version, with its smoke and dried herbs, isn’t just Brunello discards; it comes from a special site.

2020 Chateau Musar Hochar Pere et Fils (US $31, UK £22) The Hochars are my wine heroes for creating great vino in Lebanon even when bombs were exploding. This silky-textured single-vineyard blend of cabernet, grenache and cinsault is what to drink if you’re toasting peace.

2022 Château Tronquoy Saint-Estèphe (US $40, UK £26) Don’t ignore Bordeaux’s bargains! This is the best vintage I’ve tasted from an estate in Saint-Estèphe owned by the billionaire proprietors of the more famous Château Montrose. It’s powerful and structured, with earthy tones and spicy fruit.

2013 López de Heredia Viña Bosconia Rioja Reserva 2013 (US $40, UK £35) The traditionalist producer in Rioja has a following of aficionados for its classic reds and whites. And for a full-bodied, complex, savory great wine that already been aged 12 years, the price is very, very low.

2022 Ex Post Facto Syrah (US $50) Esteemed winemaker Greg Brewercrafts this syrah from California’s cool Santa Rita Hills as though it were pinot noir. The result is a smoky-spicy red with bright fruit and a leathery finish.

2023 Pali Wine Co. Pali Vineyard Dornfelder (US $50) My first take: juicy berries, violet-y aromas, a bit peppery, only 12% alcohol and similar to a cru Beaujolais. It’s the first vintage of a new red from Pali, a winery on California’s Central Coast.

Rosé and orange wines for all seasons

Dry pink or orange wines are an all-year drink, as an aperitif or party sipper, or with food.

2024 Field Recordings Skins (US $22) This crisp California orange wine made from 12 white grapes (led by chenin blanc) in Paso Robles has a cult following. Vivid, earthy and richly textured, it will make you a believer.

2024 Istine Rosato (US $24) I’ve raved about the Istine Chianti Classicos, but winemaker Angela Fronti also makes an easy drinking rosé from Sangiovese. It’s fruity and fun, with herbal hints, and made for a lunch of bread and dry Italian sausage.

2023 Umathum Rosa (US $27) A serious fuchsia-colored rosé that satisfies even during a chilly winter, this unique Austrian wine is full of deep cherry and raspberry notes. It’s for hearty pork roasts.

2024 Les Vins Pirouettes Eros de Vincent (US $27) Just say yes! The collective of Alsatian organic wine growers was founded by natural wine guru Christian Binner, and the label is in most natural wine bars. Eros is a versatile light-bodied orange combo of white grapes that tastes of spice and ripe nectarines.

Sweet wines

And for dessert?

2024 G.D. Vajra Moscato d’Asti (US $20, UK £19) Think summer in a glass. With only 5.5% alcohol, scents like a bouquet of flowers, candied peach flavors and a gentle fizz, you could sip it all day while sitting on a patio. You don’t need an excuse.

2021 Château Rieussec Les Carmes de Rieussec (US $30, UK £25; 375mL) I love sweet Sauternes, but not enough drinkers do, or it would cost more. Inhale the honeysuckle-scents of this second wine from a cru classé château, and savor the flavors of candied lemon peel, honey and apricots with salty Roquefortcheese.

2020 Feudo Montoni Passito Rosso (US $37, UK £38; 375mL) Made from sun-dried perricone and nero d’avola grapes, this ultraripe, deeply sweet red is part of a long Sicilian tradition. A few sips with dark chocolate create a fabulous dessert.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Kevin Hardy, Stateline.org

The last time the Maine Public Utilities Commission considered an electricity price hike, the proposal received fewer than 90 comments from the public.

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Three years later, amid skyrocketing energy prices, more than 800 people weighed in on the plan, showing up to public hearings and even protesting outside.

The commission last month ultimately rejected the proposal that would have raised bills by about $35 per month for customers of Central Maine Power, the state’s largest electricity provider. In explaining the denial, Commission Chair Philip Bartlett cited growing energy costs.

“There’s no question that affordability is increasingly an issue, not just with respect to electricity prices, but across the entire economy,” Bartlett told Stateline. “And people are feeling enormous pressure.”

Rising utility prices are increasingly drawing scrutiny from state regulators and lawmakers nationwide. Given the public outcry, many state leaders are considering rate freezes, additional energy assistance funds or new rates targeting large energy users such as data centers. But states only have so much control; regulators say they can’t change the fundamental market dynamics that will likely continue to push prices up.

Between January and September of this year, average home electricity rates increased 11.7% — more than triple the rate of inflation, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which represents state employees administering federal energy assistance programs. Average electric bills increased nearly 30% between 2021 and 2025, climbing from $121 to $156 per month.

Many low-income households have long struggled to cover utility bills. Now, advocates say, high prices are affecting a growing swath of the middle class.

Utility prices played a major role in recent Democratic gubernatorial wins in New Jersey and Virginia. And in Georgia, Democrats flipped two seats on the board that regulates public utilities — the first time Democrats won statewide constitutional office in nearly two decades.

Most consumers get their electricity from utilities that must seek state consent for rate changes, with appointed or elected state boards approving price structures.

In Washington state, Ann Rendahl, one of three members of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, said state utility regulators always consider affordability when making rate decisions. Now those deliberations have attracted much more public and political scrutiny.

“We’re hearing from more and more people,” she said. “I think it’s becoming more of a concern politically as well as legislatures and governors hear about this.”

Prices have been affected by a multitude of factors: Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has disrupted global oil and gas supplies; extreme weather events; and rising demand driven by the artificial intelligence boom and energy-intensive data centers have all played a role.

Major utility providers say they are focused on keeping electricity affordable and reliable. They point to massive upgrades to the grid as a primary driver of rising prices.

While state attention on the issue is growing, experts see no immediate relief in sight for consumers.

In Maine, a separate rate increase request will likely come before regulators soon. And the Maine Public Utilities Commission recently approved a supply price increase estimated to raise customer bills by $13 to $17 a month.

In Florida, regulators just approved a $6.9 billion rate increase for the state’s largest utility, which opponents said was the largest hike in state history. The typical bill will rise by $2.50 per month to $136.64 next year. But because of other recent rate increases, the average customer will pay hundreds of dollars more each year than they did in 2021, when the typical monthly bill was $101.70, The Associated Press reported.

Amid rising demand, the consultant firm ICF predicts U.S. residential customers could see electricity rates increase 15% to 40% by 2030, with some rates doubling by 2050.

“Like everything else, I think [utility] costs are not going down,” said Rendahl, who is also president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, which represents state public service commissioners.

‘We can’t take it anymore’

While running her successful campaign for governor of New Jersey, Democrat Mikie Sherrill, then a U.S. House member, pledged she would declare a state of emergency on her first day to freeze utility rates.

“My priority is relief to New Jersey consumers, and I will bring everyone to the table to deliver it,” she said in September. Sherrill takes office in January, but many experts question how much she can do to lower prices.

Regulators there had already issued $100 utility bill credits to provide relief for all customers, the New Jersey Monitor reported.

“This should be helpful for people, but in no way solves the problem,” Zenon Christodoulou, a member of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, said in August.

President Donald Trump has dismissed broader affordability concerns as “a con job” by Democrats. But Republican state officials have underscored the growing strain of electric bills.

Months before Democrats in Georgia attracted national attention for winning election to the utility board, GOP lawmakers there were raising concerns about the growing data center industry and had proposed legislation to protect ratepayers.

In September, Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Braun directed his newly appointed consumer advocate to dive into rising electricity bills, specifically targeting utility profits. The governor said utility investors, not ratepayers, should bear more of the pain of rising prices.

“We can’t take it anymore,” Braun said in a news release.

Infrastructure updates increase costs

In justifying rising prices, utility companies have pointed to a wave of massive investments in the electric grid. Utilities are on track to spend$208 billion this year, according to the Edison Electric Institute, which represents the nation’s investor-owned electric utilities.

Members of that group, which provide power to 250 million Americans, are projected to make capital expenditures of more than $1.1 trillion between 2025 and 2029.

Drew Maloney, president and CEO of the institute, told Stateline in a statement that the nation’s electric companies are focused on keeping electricity as “reliable and as affordable as possible” by “making essential investments to lower costs and protect America’s most important machine—the U.S. electric grid.”

But utility companies have “perverse incentives” to drive up capital expenses, said David Pomerantz, executive director of the nonprofit Energy and Policy Institute, a watchdog group tracking fossil fuel and utility industries.

Utilities are ensured a certain return on their capital investments, which he said can push them to spend heavily on projects that provide questionable benefits. State commissions set a rate of return for energy projects aimed at ensuring utilities can attract investors. That gives states an enormous amount of influence over prices, Pomerantz said.

“At the risk of sounding a little flip about this, it’s actually a lot easier for utilities than it is for, say, grocery prices,” he said. “What they’re allowed to charge customers is usually set by a group of three or five people.”

While politicians increasingly acknowledge the strain of rising utility costs, Pomerantz said it’s unclear whether state leaders will actually lower utility profits to provide relief for customers.

“Democrats and Republicans suddenly realize they have a crisis on their hands, and so the rhetoric has changed a lot in just the last few months,” he said. “It’s good rhetoric, but is anything different going to happen?”

More households struggle with bills

As bills have increased, many residents have fallen behind.

An analysis of consumer credit data from the left-leaning groups Century Foundation and Protect Borrowers found about 1 in 20 households — some 14 million Americans — had utility bills at least 90 days past due in June.

Between March 2022 and June 2025, the report found average overdue balances climbed from $597 to $789.

“It’s a real source of financial anxiety for working people who are trying to figure out how to stay warm in Wisconsin or not die from heat stroke in Arizona,” said Mike Pierce, executive director of Protect Borrowers, an organization originally founded to advocate for student loan borrowers.

Pierce said the growing utility debt speaks to wider financial concerns across the country, as overall household debt balloons.

“Our theory of the case here is that Americans are struggling, which is the same thing Americans will tell you when you talk to them,” he said.

The federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, commonly known as LIHEAP, has faced multiple threats from the Trump administration, which sought to eliminate its funding, fired top agency staff and withheld pledged funds. But amid rising political pressure, the federal government did release those funds last month.

While that’s good news for many households, the buying power of the program has significantly decreased because of rising energy prices, said Mark Wolfe, an energy economist and executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which represents state LIHEAP directors.

Many liberal-led states have their own supplementary energy assistance programs, Wolfe noted. Lawmakers in some states have sought to boost those programs. Oregon, for instance, this year doubled its assistance fund from $20 to $40 million.

“It happened pretty quickly,” Wolfe said of the rising prices. “So it’s not just poor families who are struggling to pay their electric bill.”

Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at khardy@stateline.org.

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Edward Lotterman

There are thinkers throughout history who offer grand overarching explanations of economic growth.

Karl Marx was an economic determinist who focused on perpetual struggle between economic classes. Philosopher Adam Smith argued that human ingenuity and enterprise should not be throttled by government. Biological scientist Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs and Steel” highlights the environmental and technological factors behind growth.

Such broad, or macro level, thinking at a is important. But micro-level case studies, those focused on specific individuals or groups, can also give rise to insights, if only by raising questions for further musing:. Why do some economies grow faster than others? Why do some use resources more efficiently, and distribute what is produced more fairly? These issues are the core of economics. Sometimes little examples push us toward broader answers.

Start with specific issues: Why does fruitful innovation occur in one set of circumstances but not another? Why in one location and not another? Where macro thinking provides the theories, micro provides the stories of how the thinking is applied.

Bananas are the first story. I remember my mother reading our little town’s mimeographed weekly and sardonically saying, “Well, Hank’s got bananas on sale for 10 cents a pound. Hank always has bananas for 10 cents.” This was about 1962. Somehow, someone could get bananas from Central America to rural Minnesota to sell for 10 cents a pound. That was an economic miracle. How did it come about?

Well, a century earlier, Henry Meiggs, an enterprising but dishonest forty-niner, hopped on the first ship leaving San Francisco to avoid police and people he had defrauded. He hopped off when it stopped in Chile. Wheeler-dealer to the bone, he soon contracted to build a railroad from the port of Valparaiso to the capital of Santiago and succeeded. This brought him contracts to build other railroads in Peru and elsewhere.

As the go-to guy for Latin American governments wanting railroads, he agreed to build one for bicoastal Costa Rica. It was to carry coffee from the highlands for shipment to Europe from an Atlantic-facing port rather than around South America, pre-Panama Canal, from a Pacific port. But the railroad had to cross disease-infested lowlands on the Caribbean coast. An aging Meiggs got his sister’s four boys to help. Three of these four Keith brothers were among the 4,000 workers who died of yellow fever and other tropical illnesses before 25 miles of railroad were completed.

However, the survivor, Minor C. Keith, was as enterprising as his uncle. Among other things, he planted banana seeds obtained from Caribbean growers. After a government bankruptcy, he ended up owning the unprofitable railroad himself along with millions of acres of land. He saw that shipping bananas might raise revenues from these assets. Refrigerated steamships, then new, could move fruit from the Atlantic port of Limon north through the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans in three days. From there, iced railroad cars could get the fruit to U.S. cities and rural areas alike. Volume disbursed cost and ensured profit. Bananas had cost only five cents a pound when my mom was a kid.

Much of this network was constructed after Keith and a French Caribbean planter merged operations to form United Fruit, now Chiquita International. United deserved its dark reputation for brutal treatment of workers and corrupt domination of politics across Central America. But it was a marvel of logistics.

Would the northern U.S. and Canada ever have had tropical fruit without Keith? Certainly yes. But perhaps not as cheaply nor available as soon. Could Guatemalan or Costa Rican businesses have raised and exported the fruit themselves? Perhaps. But without knowledge and ability to integrate growing, harvesting, rail transport, ocean shipping, unloading and then distribution, they could not have succeeded like Minor C. Keith.

Now consider post-World War II industrialization in Brazil. A frustrating country politically with a dynamic economy, it’s seen dramatic spurts of growth mixed with doldrums. World-class Brazilian sectors include sugar, orange juice, soybeans, airliners, heavy construction, iron mining and more. But Brazil has failed to achieve the broad-based development of Taiwan or South Korea. An adverse political culture still holds it back.

The blockheadedness of World War II German U-boat captains gave Brazil’s economy an early kick.

During the war, the South Atlantic was full of cargo ships. Argentina always sold large amounts of wheat and beer to Britain. After the Italian Navy closed the Mediterranean to commercial shipping, wheat, meat, butter, cheese and wool from New Zealand and Australia had to come around the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of Africa, rather than through the Suez Canal. With North Atlantic cargoes from the U.S. or Canada facing a gauntlet of German U-Boat torpedoes, supplies from South America were vital.

Among these ships were some from neutral Brazil, most were not. U-Boat captains paid little attention to niceties. The shipping lane from Argentina to England ran right along the Brazilian coast. So people in Rio de Janeiro worshiping the sun on Copacabana and Ipanema beaches soon started seeing ships torpedoed before their eyes. The public outcry was huge and tipped the balance toward Brazil’s declaration of war on Germany in 1942.

Brazil immediately joined the U.S. Navy in anti-submarine operations in the South Atlantic and Caribbean, freeing up U.S. forces. Eventually a 25,000-strong expeditionary force of Brazilian ground and air units arrived in Italy to fight in the U.S. Fifth Army commanded by Gen. Mark Clark. Some 460 died. Its bloodiest fight was in April 1945, six miles west of where future Kansas senator Bob Dole was badly wounded the same day.

In return, Brazil became integrated into the U.S. industrial war machine. We built them a large integrated steel mill and supported a plant to overhaul aircraft engines. That eventually became a truck factory. New airports and air navigation systems were built. Ports were improved, machinists, electricians and other technicians were trained. Brazil’s industrial training system that taught Brazil’s president Luis Ignacio da Silva how to operate a lathe was based on U.S. military tech training.

After the war, Brazil entered four decades of rapid growth. Its war experience and relationship with the U.S. was not the only cause, but it was a major one.

The next example is the case of John Moses Browning, a Utah gun designer, and Herstal, a small Belgian town. This is on a far smaller scale than global trade, but it shows how fortuitous accidents can benefit a particular city or firm.

Browning, considered the most brilliant gun designer in history, never manufactured firearms himself. He sold his patents to Winchester, Colt and other firms. Thomas G. Bennett, son-in-law of Oliver Winchester and president of that firm, bought many Browning designs, including those for nearly all successful models entering production between 1880 and 1900.

As the 1890s ended, Browning designed a superb shotgun, the first successful semi-automatic. He wanted a per-gun royalty rather than a lump-sum patent fee as before. Bennett refused, then disparaged Browning to reporters. At the same time, Browning hit an impasse with Colt over rights to a semiautomatic pistol.

Fortuitously, Browning once had met Hart Berg, a German engineer trained at the University of Liege in eastern Belgium, who worked at Colt. When Browning’s new designs were ready, Berg was at Fabrique Nationale, a small, nearly bankrupt gun manufacturer in Herstal, a small town near Liege. Browning made the first of 65 Atlantic crossings and quickly signed a contract.

By the time a large banquet was held in early 1914 to celebrate the sale of the millionth Browning pistol, employment at FN Herstal was 4,200, six times what it had been in 1902, and the factory covered 30 acres rather than four. Some 1.3 million units of that model of shotgun would be sold over seven decades along with millions of later pistol, shotgun and rifle designs.

The effects on the world economy were trifling. Browning’s guns would have been made in any case by someone somewhere. But for eastern Belgium, the thriving of a company offering thousands of good jobs was important. A nearly random set of events led to a striking outcome. Minnesotans today can see parallels with Mayo and Rochester.

Sweeping forces may drive overall economic change, but little case studies like these are highly instructive.

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St. Paul economist and writer Edward Lotterman can be reached at stpaul@edlotterman.com.

When American conservatives abandon free-market principles, there’s no telling what follows. The Heritage Foundation has been illustrating this the past few months.

One of the largest conservative think tanks in D.C. has been bleeding talent. Three members of its board of trustees resigned. Longtime conservative movement leaders such as Chris DeMuth and Stephen Moore cut ties.

Then, on Monday, three of Heritage’s research divisions moved almost as entire units to Advancing American Freedom (AAF), the conservative group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence. The heads of the legal, economics and data analysis teams at Heritage defected to AAF, and they took many of their employees with them. This nearly doubles AAF’s staff, and the organization says to expect more hires. AAF also says it has raised at least $12 million in the past two weeks to support the new staffers and the projects they will be working on.

The proximate cause of these shifts was a video in October by Heritage President Kevin Roberts defending Tucker Carlson’s softball interview of antisemitic and racist influencer Nick Fuentes. If this sounds like an esoteric reason for such upheaval, that’s because it’s not the only reason. For years now, Heritage has been straying from free-market principles it once championed, causing much consternation among scholars who genuinely believe in those ideals.

Departures are not limited to the last few months. Some, such as financial regulation expert Norbert Michel and tax policy expert Adam Michel (they’re not related), now work for libertarian organizations. Others, such as budget scholar Paul Winfree, left to found new groups. Many of Heritage’s scholars who supported free trade left sporadically over several years.

Since its founding in 1973, Heritage had supported free trade. In 1993, Heritage hailed NAFTA as the realization of Ronald Reagan’s vision, since he had negotiated the U.S.-Canada free trade agreement that preceded it and supported free trade with Mexico as well. The group continued to support free trade during Trump’s first term.

When Roberts became president in December 2021, he brought a hostile attitude to free trade and a lower opinion of free markets generally. While he talks about the need for unity among conservatives and extolls the big-tent nature of Trump’s coalition, it has long been clear that there’s more room in Roberts’ tent for populist skeptics of free markets than those who are enthusiastic about them. Monday’s mass exodus confirms that.

Many of these fellows previously reasoned that they could be more helpful to the free-market cause by holding the line within the organization than by leaving. When the day-to-day battles became more about whether they’d face consequences for posting “Nazis are bad” online than about the finer points of budget policy, this position became untenable.

Support for free markets historically has been part of the glue that held the conservative movement together. That was the conviction of conservative leaders such as William F. Buckley Jr., Ronald Reagan and Heritage founder Edwin Feulner. They believed any long-term political movement needed to embrace free markets as foundational.

Monday’s most striking move might have been former attorney general Ed Meese, one of Reagan’s closest advisers as California governor and later president, throwing his full support behind the defections. AAF will now host a Meese Institute for the Rule of Law.

“Conservatives must resist the temptation to abandon their defense of free enterprise in pursuit of short-term victories,” Feulner and Pence wrote in an article together for National Affairs that ended up being Feulner’s last published work before his death in July. Heritage’s descent into chaos shows what can happen when that temptation is indulged.

— The Washington Post

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