Food Price Controls are a Losing Issue
2024-09-05
The central problem with government economic policies is that many bad economic policies are politically advantageous. Hence, politicians enact policies that many of them know don’t work just to stay in power. Price controls are bad economic policy. Democrat Presidential candidate Kamala Harris wants to empower the Federal Trade Commission to stop “food price gouging” with what would amount to price ceilings.Price ceilings cause shortages of goods and wasteful queuing, in this case for food. Why might such a bad policy win Harris, or any candidate, votes? First, many people don’t understand economics, don’t understand why price controls are bad policy. Second, a majority or people want government to secure a supply of affordable food. Consequently, increases in food costs in recent years
Simon Guenzl vs. Dave Smith on Open Borders
2024-04-12
Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito
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“Desire Paths” and the Problem with Central Planning
2024-04-10
I recently attended the Austrian Economics Research Conference, which is held annually at the Mises Institute on the campus of Auburn University. After an inspiring day of presentations, I began my trek back to the Auburn University Hotel. As I made my way down the sidewalk, I found myself walking along a well-trodden dirt path. Soon enough I was back on the sidewalk, and I turned around, quickly realizing I had taken the “wrong” path. The correct one entailed taking a sharp left turn, walking up a set of stairs, and then continuing along the sidewalk at the top. This path seemed rather unintuitive, however. Why would I walk up a flight of stairs when I could simply continue walking in a straight line, all to ultimately end up in the same place? I came to a realization: I didn’t take the