by Michael Munger
The American Institute for Economic Research
Things are rarely so bad that decisive action by government officials can’t make things worse.
In the current election, the Republicans are trying to outdo each other by proposing larger and more restrictive tariffs. The Democrats have just come out with a remarkably bad plan to outlaw “price gouging,” particularly for groceries.
Such proposals get more attention from politicians at election time, because to get votes you have to show you did something. The fact that the right thing is to do nothing is hard for politicians to accept, because no one can claim credit for the market.
I’m not trying to make a partisan point, because as I noted above there are ill-advised proposals on both sides of the party divide. And I’m not claiming markets are perfect. The problem is that asking voters what they want prices to be is a recipe for becoming…. well, Venezuela.