Reinforcing what economic theory tells us, evidence of the harm of price controls abounds in history, from the infamous 303 A.D. Edict of Emperor Diocletian in Ancient Rome to America’s 1970s gasoline price controls and, perhaps most infamously, New York City’s disastrous eight-decade-long experiment with rent control.
Price Controls
Arab Oil Embargo Would Not Be a Threat to a Free Market Economy
If the United States had had a free market in oil when the Arabs imposed their embargo, its oil supplies could not have been seriously jeopardized.
Help Wanted: Price Gougers and Profiteers
Anti-price gouging laws are not only unjust, but to the extent they cause shortages in emergencies they also deprive people of things they need badly and would be willing to pay more for.
“Price Gouging” Restricts “Hoarding” and Eliminates Shortages
Higher prices charged have a couple of unappreciated benefits.
Anti-“Price-Gouging” Shows a Preference for Suffering Over Profit
If there were no price controls or threat thereof, prices in the present situation would be high enough to keep stocks on the shelves.
Empty Shelves Are Not a Result of Free Market Capitalism
The shelves aren’t empty because of free-market capitalism. They’re empty because of active interference with free-market capitalism.
The Importance of Rising Prices in a Crisis
Prices should rise during emergencies. That’s because prices aren’t just money; they are signals, information. They tell suppliers what their customers want most.
Government Price Control of Pharmaceutical Drugs
The government should have no business in controlling drug prices or regulating drug development.
The Coronavirus and Anti-Gouging Laws
Instead of finding (temporarily expensive) masks available for sale, we are confronted by “No masks available” signs everywhere we look.
Price Controls Attack the Freedom of Speech
We increasingly live in a new “dark age” of economic ignorance, and even stupidity. Few things exemplify this trend as much as the call for price controls over the interactions of multitudes of people in the marketplace of supply and demand. There are few government...
On “Price Gouging” Water During Hurricanes and Natural Disasters
Allowing prices to rise to heights that accurately reveal the intense desperation of the situation is the surest means of encouraging additional supplies of vital goods to be rushed ASAP to the area.
Wages War
Many high employment “countries such as Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland” have no minimum wage laws.
Congress Seeks To Boost Teen Joblessness By Increasing The Minimum Wage
A mandatory minimum wage rate, to the extent it’s set above the market-clearing wage rate, causes unemployment.
AOC Returns to the Scene of the Minimum Wage Crime
Does a government-mandated minimum wage help or hurt the very workers and job seekers that Ocasio-Cortez wants to help?
Living Wage Is as Wrongheaded as the Minimum Wage
After all the studies and the near-unanimous opinion of economists — and even after the negative real-world effect of the minimum wage — it still remains popular.
If $15 Minimum Wage Is Such a Good Idea, Why Did AOC’s Bar Close Down?
Its co-owner, Charles Milite, cited as the primary reason the city’s minimum wage law.
Amazon Advocates Government Force To Increase The Minimum Wage
While Amazon has every right to choose how to compensate its workers, this minimum wage increase and Bezos’ encouraging the federal government to do the same are wrong.
Taxi Deregulation Is On a Roll
The taxi lobby had called for everyone to be equally regulated. Instead, the commissioners made everyone equally free.
Tariffs on Foreign Goods To Save Jobs
When Congress creates a special privilege for some Americans, it must of necessity come at the expense of other Americans.
Minimum Wage Floors Increase Unemployment of Low-Skilled Labour
It is incompetence or dishonesty for my fellow economists to deny these two effects of minimum wages: discrimination against employment of low-skilled labor and the lowering of the cost of racial discrimination.
Yield Purchasing Power: $100M Today Matches $100K in 1979
I wrote a story about poor Clarence who retired in 1979, and even poorer Larry who retired last year. I created these characters to challenge the notion of calculating a real interest rate by subtracting inflation. The idea is that the decline of a currency can be measured by the rate of price increases. This price-centric view leads to the concept of purchasing power—the amount of stuff that a dollar can buy. It’s the flip side of prices. When prices rise, purchasing power falls.
Are Hedge Funds Worth More Than Kindergartens?
"The top 25 hedge fund managers made more than all the kindergarten teachers in the country," declared President Obama in a discussion of poverty at Georgetown University. Calling them “society’s lottery winners,” he proposed to hike their taxes. Predictably, battle...
California’s Government Created Water Problem
Water is distributed in California and other Western states not by market prices but by the political process.
The Most Common Error in Economic Debates
Have you ever been in an argument about whether we should raise taxes and then someone tosses out a real whopper? “The top tax rate for decades after World War II was over 90% and look how the economy boomed!” Or perhaps you read a Paul Krugman column where he said...