Prominent Democrats flooded the airwaves Sunday morning to defend Vice President Kamala Harris’ economic platform — but they were hesitant to specifically back a proposed price gouging ban that has raised eyebrows among Republicans and some economists.
“I think picking this one proposal of the many she’s put out misses the broader point, which is that Vice President Harris is continuing the work of President Biden in reducing costs faced by working Americans,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday.”...
From "Kamala Harris’s new economic plan draws Democrats’ praise, GOP’s scorn/Democrats touted her proposals, from grocery prices to health care, as addressing Americans’ daily concerns" (WaPo).
As Vice President Kamala Harris’s new economic proposals dominated Sunday morning’s political shows, allies touted her ideas to address food and housing costs as beneficial to middle-class Americans, while critics — including Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), the GOP vice-presidential nominee — slammed her plan as unworkable and unrealistic.
Harris’s economic plan... includes a ban on price gouging for groceries and food....
Democrats on Sunday defended Harris’s economic proposals as targeting many Americans’ key needs, and they noted that her speech... represented the start of her policy pitch, with more detail to come....
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The Fed and state governments caused this round of inflation with the shutdowns and money printing. The culprits now propose to make things much worse with price controls. Cause a problem, fix it by making the problem worse. The perpetual Democratic Party Cycle of Self-inflicted Doom. At least, their intentions are good. So good. Some great jobs for Democratic apparatchiks ahead administering and enforcing price controls.
Well, Alhouse, you’re a full professor emerita so it follows that you should be able to perform basic research. Have price controls ever worked? When? Where? Were the controls applied in a manner that permitted farmers to recover their costs of producing the food? Or were the farmers coerced into selling their meat and produce at a net loss? If not, were the grocers allowed to sell their food for at least the cost of replacing it on the shelves?
The point we Republicans are making is that the level of economic ignorance expressed by Harris is utterly amazing — and completely disqualifying.
Over and over the Lefties tell us that we should just wait and — trust them! — they will fix things. Sort of like PetecButtiggieg being given $7.5 billion to build charging stations in 2021 under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and so far they’ve built only eight . But we should trust them — they’ll get there. Some day. Really.
The Donks have gauged the gouge and have to rethink the gorge they are trying to cross.
She has provided few details because her plans are unworkable as applied to groceries, drugs or housing. So Beshear is pouncing on Republicans who dare to question the details of her plans. Really can they even be called “plans” when their present form are hastily described proposals, except for the specific drugs she promises to “lower costs” on? And those, except for one are drugs on which the patents were running out in 2026 anyway, the year her alleged plan will lower their cost, by which she means lower the retail price.
She’s a big phony proposing unworkable and ill advised meddling in an economy that would greatly benefit from far less Democrat fuckery with it.
Mike Munger on the aftermath of a NC hurricane and price gouging, highly entertaining.
NC has anti price-gouging laws, so the guy who trucked in ice and was selling it for $20 a bag fell afoul of those laws and the police confiscated the truck. The people in line to buy a $20 bag cheered. But they got no ice at any price.
Harris is counting on the cheering.
Democrats have this idea — captured by Joe Biden himself when he famously asked who died and left Milton Friedman in charge — that they can’t bend the science of economics to their will. Well, they can no more bend the science of economics than they can bend the science of physics. Or do they plan to ask who died and left Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton in charge?
This week the BLS is going to revise down by 1 million the number of jobs created between April 2023 and March 2024, wiping out all their previous overestimates of monthly job creation.
So, yeah, you're going to hear a lot more about price gouging and not very much about how good the economy is.
Maybe the cheering crowds can magically cool things with their unspent paper money?
But President Biden said his Administration has kept the prices in check. The Fed just reported last week that [the rate of] inflation was lower. So under what delusion of price gouging is Harris operating?
She's playing to the gullible, looking for votes and sucking the air out of other election topics about what the current admin had done and what she will actually do, with no real expectation that she could get effective price gouging rules or laws in place.
this one proposal of the many she’s put out
many? could someone list a few for me? i can't remember ANY
What would federal price gouging laws look like? Would there be a government panel to determine ‘market’ prices? Retiring New York judges?
Why aren't the Democrats introducing this legislation immediately???
The Democrats strategy in recent Presidential elections is simply not to campaign other than some friendly rallies. "We are not Trump" is the whole campaign and they are betting that is enough.
@Big Mike. Not sure why your posts generally attack our gracious hostess, but it does get a bit tiresome.
The meme factories are pumping out more dreck than usual about "obscene profits," not making it clear that what they should be reporting is profit margin. The echo chamber loves it, though.
Does anyone remember the 70s?
President nixon kicked them off with wage and price controls. The we had 10% or more inflation year after year until Reagan got it under control.
John Henry
How come nobody speaks about price and wage control?
Wages are just a price. You cannot control some prices and not the price of labor too.
John Henry
When you control the price of food the wages don't matter. Black markets will take care of any excess wages.
Here is Whitmer.
Rejahm asks what wage and price controls, "anti-gouging" program might look like.
Maybe something like this:
I On Aug. 15, 1971, in a nationally televised address, Nixon announced, “I am today ordering a freeze on all prices and wages throughout the United States.”
After a 90-day freeze, increases would have to be approved by a “Pay Board” and a “Price Commission,” with an eye toward eventually lifting controls — conveniently, after the 1972 election.
John Henry
There are state price gouging laws and the ones that I’ve looked at, including California’s state law, require a formal declaration of emergency and define price gouging as a 10% increase in price from 30 days before the declaration of emergency to after the declaration. Reports on Harris’ proposal seem to water down the requirement for a formal declaration of emergency to an undefined “times of crisis”.
There’s an interesting discussion on your point about the specific drugs for which lower prices are promised have patents that are about to expire at about the time the lower prices kick in, over at the Powerline blog.
unbolden
Price controls never work. They have tried to implement them since the Roman Empire, and they always backfire.
And you can count that as my "thinking about the Roman Empire" entry for today.
"PetecButtiggieg being given $7.5 billion to build charging stations in 2021 under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and so far they’ve built only eight ."
Ah but you ignore the actual accomplishments. The number of governmental staff, the number of consultants and the number of contracts already in place dawrf by far the actual charging stations.
Think big, Big Mike.
Everyone seems to be missing the point.
Very simply, the Harris campaign is trying to confuse and distract people.
They want to conflate the economy-wide inflation caused by Biden-Harris policy with certain practices they define as "price gouging," as if she has the solution to both.
Exactly. On Wednesday the BLS is going to make another one of their famous backward revisions, lowering the job number by 1 million, wiping out all "gains" recorded under Biden's "recovery." If people truly do vote their pocketbook or "kitchen table" issues then I don't see how the D candidates have a chance this Fall. Even people I know who despise Trump, assume he might be dirty like Joe says, and never would have voted for him before are warming up to putting him back in the White house.
To be more serious, generally speaking price gouging can only occur if the market is monopolized or similar (cartel), or there is an unusual situation that causes a major market disruption, like a natural disaster. If any of the food market is in a monopoly situation, it should be broken up as we normally do in these situations. I am not aware of any such situation, especially not anything that could cause food prices to rise as they have across the board.
Supermarkets run on very low margins. They really have no way to lower prices any further than they already have without going out of business.
When Kamala lambasts "price gouging" she is trying to deflect from the inflation that her administration caused. They caused the problem, and they now blame everyone else because "I am a failure" is not a particularly good election slogan.
https://donsurber.substack.com/p/how-to-tell-kamala-isnt-polling-well
Apologies. I thought I had unboldened but apparently not.
The new format leaves me typing blind so my editing is even worse than traditionally.
John Henry
The curious thing is that they didn't cause the inflation. It was caused by nobody producing and everybody consuming in the pandemic, and today's inflation is the unwinding of the supply disruptions from that. During the pandemic the shortage was rationed by empty shelves. Now it's being rationed by increased price so less buying. If real wages "keep up" the inflation won't stop, so you don't want real wages keeping up, anyway until production comes back fully. Biden won't help that though.
Fed chairman Volker got it under control with 17% interest rates.
Costco, supposedly, makes all their profit frm membership fees.
If true, that means they are selling products at cost.
How can they reduce prices? Does kamala expect them to take a loss on each sale?
Sam's club is in the s as me boat, I think.
Maybe they are gouging me on my membership fees? I haven't noticed them going up but haven't been paying much attention.
John Henry
The ever prim and proper Shannon Bream told Coons where he could stow his obfuscations.
Chris Coons is the guy who let Biden kiss and sniff his daughter and did nothing.
Why can't the Biden administration implement those controls today?
"...that Vice President Harris is continuing the work of President Biden in reducing costs faced by working Americans,”
That's exactly the problem. We don't want her to continue that work because everything they've been doing has been increasing, not reducing, costs faced by working Americans.
Also, how do Beshear, Coon, and our esteemed leftists here feel about Kamala's expressed will to "snatch" patents the last time she ran for President? Sounds a bit authoritarian and communisty to me. Your thoughts, Inga?
Would have been easier for the people to just beat up the ice man and take the ice. But the police were there to protects Ice Man from that.
Whip Inflation Now! WIN! Where's my box of ancient political pins?!
This exact same crap worked so well for Jerry Ford, I'm sure it will succeed just as well for President Harris.
“I think picking this one proposal of the many she’s put out misses the broader point, which is that Vice President Harris is continuing the work of President Biden in reducing costs faced by working Americans,”
Except everything Biden did, as well as everything Harris supports, works to raise prices and make life more miserable for "working Americans."
So the statement is true, but not in the way intended
The basic problem is that inflation is a monetary problem. Always has been. It’s not greedy businesses price gouging, but greedy politicians spending significantly more money than they bring in through taxes, which has to be funded through borrowing. Deficit spending. And when the Chinese (etc) quit buying our debt, it had to be purchased by the Federal Reserve, increasing the money supply. MV=PQ. The Obama/Biden Administration has overseen massive amounts of deficit spending. The bill for it is coming due.
I said this above.
The basic problem is that inflation is a monetary problem. Always has been. It’s not greedy businesses price gouging, but greedy politicians spending significantly more money than they bring in through taxes, which has to be funded through borrowing. Deficit spending. And when the Chinese (etc) quit buying our debt, it had to be purchased by the Federal Reserve, increasing the money supply. MV=PQ. The Obama/Biden Administration has overseen massive amounts of deficit spending. The bill for it is coming due.
What's the young, college credentialed, mostly female (identifying) to do? The Cartels are controlling the avocado production driving up the cost of guacamole toast. If there's price gouging in the supermarket, it's is among the meals ready to heat, organic, non-gmo blah blah. All things the AWFL consume in large part.
But good news, the DNC is apparently going to be light on policy and big on "vibes". A last hurrah before a repeat of the 1970s inflation?
‘Is This Even Legal?!’ Critics Slam Kamala Harris Over Vow to ‘Snatch’ Patents After Resurfaced Vid Goes Viral
There is more taxes on a gallon of gas than profits. So who exactly is gouging?
Yes, Volker got it under control. I had some T-Bills in my pension plan that were 16%. I hated to see them expire. Nixon started the inflation by going off the gold standard. LBJ began the whole thing with "Guns and Butter."
Our hostess seems to be working overtime to find ways to support the Harris Walz dumpster fire without saying she supports it (likely 'cause it's "Not Trump).
If there were any reporters left they could look at the new prices for Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I bought a pint of Cherry Garcia at the corner store and it was $9.99. Are Ben and Jerry gouging? Or are they victims like the rest of us, Kamala?
I am beginning to see why Harris dropped out of the Iowa primary. Even with the press doing their damnedest ( with the few editorial exceptions on price controls) to push her over the line it is becoming much clearer that she is, as someone said, an empty pant suit. I have to assume that a teleprompter will get her through the convention. I am beginning to think that Pelosi et. al. really screwed themselves when they did not opt for an open convention and to hell with Harris' hurt feelings. One can see why Obama was a hold out.
@ Dan Much as I liked Ben and Jerry's when they were a feisty little company in VT I have refused to buy their ice cream for years because of their absolutely nuts political stances and their clear price gouging! You should be ashamed.
And who did they go to..
The "gouging" from membership would be lower the more you save via purchases.
Gauging. They got ya.
And if the jobs created number for March 2023 - April 2024 is higher than estimates, they'll crow about their great job creation...even though that number will probably be revised down later. That's the thing about these government numbers. They are always revised down after the incorrect "good" numbers are trotted out in the press by the current government. and no one really sees the revised numbers.
Harris is going rogue. Doing what she's been doing everyday. Because everyday she needs to do what she's been doing.
Mr. D said...
"The Donks have gauged the gouge and have to rethink the gorge they are trying to cross."
They have become engorged on the graft and think it's gorgeous.
The success our betters have in promoting this person as a presidential candidate is proof that Americans are no longer serious people. Appropriate, I guess, since we're about to put a kakistocracy into office.
Someone wanna ‘splain to me where a POTUS has the Constitutional power to unilaterally freeze wages and prices? There are no “except in the case or an emergency or crisis” clauses in that document.
Why is it called price gouging?
To me, gouging means scratching/scooping a piece out of something. Which makes it smaller. So if you “gouge” the price, that makes it less, right? “I’m Crazy Mosby and I just gouged the guts out of my prices! These prices are shadows of their former selves! Come on down before I get re-institutionalized!”
Does it refer to some practice of sneaking scoops out of bulk commodities after they’ve been weighed, thus increasing the per-pound price? But then that would be product gouging.
What does the OED say?
JSM
"Have price controls ever worked?" -- For whom? For consumers? No, of course not; they aren't intended to. For politicians? Yes, for a short period under certain circumstances. Was Nixon re-elected President in '72?
$10 for a pint of Cherry Garcia? It's on sale at the local Safeway for $4. Who is losing all that money, I wonder.
I've been following this blog since, oh, a long time ago, and I don't sense a support of Harris Walz at all. In fact, cruel neutrality is likely very bad for Harris Walz as the facts are likely very bad for Harris and Walz in the eyes of undecided and independent voters.
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