Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

The Joke

A character explains "The Law of One Price" -- the economic principle that the price of a commodity should be the same everywhere in a market. Upon learning this, a villain-like character declares "Oh my God, I have so much power!" and proceeds to sell a single grain of rice for $1,000. Because the Law of One Price says a commodity must cost the same everywhere, this forces all rice everywhere to cost $1,000 per grain. The final panel shows a newspaper headline: "FAMINE RAVAGES ASIA!"

The Humor

The comedy comes from a deliberate, absurd misinterpretation of an economic principle. The Law of One Price is a descriptive observation (prices for identical goods tend to converge in efficient markets due to arbitrage), not a prescriptive rule that forces all prices to match any single transaction. The villain treats it as if setting one price magically dictates all prices globally, as if economics works like a universal decree rather than through market forces. The escalation from a single grain of rice to a continental famine makes the misunderstanding catastrophically funny. The "Don't do it!" and "You can't stop me!" dialogue frames it as a supervillain origin story powered by an Econ 101 concept.

References

• The Law of One Price is an economic concept stating that in an efficient market with no trade barriers or transaction costs, identical goods should sell for the same price everywhere when expressed in a common currency. It is a foundational concept in international economics and is related to purchasing power parity.