On the Candidates’ Disastrous Price Policies—and Harris’s Moral Obscenity

I don’t think any economic fallacy has undergone more scrutiny, for so long, and been so universally condemned by non-partisan economists, as government price controls. Yet price controls keep resurfacing in political campaigns, especially in times of inflation. 

This presidential campaign of 2024 is no exception. Donald Trump is going crazy with tariff proposals, and recently proposed capping credit card interest rates at 10%.

Kamala Harris proposes Federal anti-price gouging laws against the food industry. I touched on the price gouging absurdity in a short post on Quora. She follows from her boss Joe Biden on this issue. 

The damaging economic effects of price controls are covered nicely in an article By Ryan Bourne and Sophia Bagley [published by CATO, titled  Economists’ Damning Verdict on Both Presidential Candidates’ Pricing Policies. So I won’t repeat them here. My focus is on the horrible moral aspects, which are not covered in the article. On the moral aspect, of the two candidates, I think Harris is the most dangerous and unjust.

Here is my Facebook post on this article:

The article rightly focuses on the economic arguments against price controls, which are well known. But of the 2 candidates, Harris is by far the worst because her policies are not just bad economics. They are MORALLY OBSCENE. And she is not original. She is just the latest in a long line of politicians who blame private enterprise for the inflation disasters that their own policies cause. In the 1970s inflation disaster, Nixon, Ford, and Carter all blamed, in their own way, private enterprise. Using useful idiot terms like “greedflation” and “shrinkflation,” (Biden’s favorite terms) and “price gouging” (Harris’s favorite), the Biden/Harris axis blames American business for inflation. This is the moral equivalent of blaming the rape victim rather than the rapist.

Inflation is a monetary phenomenon. It is the creation of excess money to finance excess government spending. This causes excess demand, which triggers GENERAL price rises (Prices can rise for other reasons, such as supply shocks. But that is NOT inflation). Since the Federal Government nationalized money over 100 years ago, ONLY THE GOVERNMENT can excessively inflate the money supply, which the Federal Reserve did in spades to fund the massive Trump and Biden “covid relief” spending. 

The recent “price spiral” was not caused by, and COULD NOT HAVE BEEN CAUSED by, American business, as Harris claims. It was caused by Trump/Biden spending (with the most blame going to Biden, in my view). All economic groups, business, workers, consumers et al, are trying to cope with the resulting cost pressures, as best they can, that 2 administrations set in motion. Harris’s campaign ploy of blaming “price gouging” by business for inflation should be rejected as the moral obscenity that it is. So much for HER character.

Related Reading:

How Anti-"Price-Gouging" Laws Really Work

‘Greedflation’: Biden’s Scandalous Blame Shifting

Joe Biden’s Despicable ,Unjust Blame Game

Memo to Jersey City Mayor Fulop: The Federal Reserve, Not Supermarkets, is to Blame for 'Hidden Food Inflation'

Economics in One Lesson—Henry Hazlitt

Did the New York Times Just Vindicate Reaganomics?

In NJ, the Crusade Against "Price-gouging" Could Be Hindering Recovery

New Jersey’s Political Attack on Takeout Food Delivery Service Providers

Memo to Harris: Corporations are not destroying America: The way the Harris campaign is marshaling economic data paints a misleading picture. By Eduardo Porter for The Washington Post