Idiot wind, price controls edition
in 2024 Election, Economy, Inflation, Kamala Harris
One might wonder why “price gouging” and “corporate greed” regularly emerge as problems under Democratic administrations. One may even wonder what Vice President Harris is talking about as she boldly comes out against them. One may also wonder at the stupidity of White House correspondent Zeke Miller’s AP story (with contributions by “Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, and Chris Rugaber in Washington, and Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Largo, Maryland”) on Harris’s big plans.
The New York Times goes so far as to note that a definitional issue may cloud Harris’s rhetoric:
There are examples of companies telling investors in recent years that they have been able to raise prices to increase profits. But even the term “price gouging” means different things to different people.
In its weekly editorial round-up today, the editors of National Review note the anomalies:
Harris is putting forward . . . price controls. She wants a ban on so-called price-gouging by food companies, to be enforced by the Federal Trade Commission. Price stability by decree was Diocletian’s idea of good policy. His Edict on Maximum Prices, issued in a.d. 301, prescribed the death penalty for profiteering; Harris, great modernizer, wants only fines. No matter who is in charge, the Left’s policy ideas always come back to one thing: government power. And if government really has the power to make food cheaper by decree, why hasn’t the Biden-Harris administration done it already?
Yes, but it polls well (see the Times story linked above). The Democrats oppose the high prices to which they themselves have contributed so much!
I hesitate to draw on Bob Dylan twice in one morning, but what we have here is a case of “Idiot Wind.” No disrespect intended: “You’re an idiot, babe / It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe.”
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/08/idiot-wind-price-controls-edition.php
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