Posted on August 17, 2024 by Scott Johnson in 2024 Election, Biden Administration, Inflation, Kamala Harris

Gauge this

The inflation of the Biden era has inflicted enormous suffering on the American people. With her tie-breaking vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, Vice President Harris was instrumental to the outbreak of inflation triggered by the perversely named legislation.

Speaking of misinformation, disinformation, demagoguery, and falsehood, I wonder about the title of the law. There oughta be a law. Indeed, Krazee-Eyez Killa Jack Smith could find one that would threaten to put the perpetrators away for a good long time.

Now Harris wants voters to think she will save us from the pain of inflation with a scheme of price controls designed to prevent “price gouging.” Yes, inflation hurts. It is a cruel, cruel tax. There’s no cackling in inflation. Do tell, Madam Vice President.

Yesterday Harris unveiled her plan to mitigate the pain she has caused in a speech at a campaign rally in Raleigh (White House transcript here.) However, you have to wonder if Harris knew what she was talking about as she read her script. She called it “price gauging” — and she’s agin it: “So, believe me, as president, I will go after the bad actors. (Applause.) And I will work to pass the first-ever federal ban on prou- — price gauging [gouging] on food.” That’s what she said (video below).

John Hinderaker has performed a public service in expounding on the stupidity of price controls. It is egregious in the context of “grocery chains” (as Harris refers to them in her speech), where profit margins run between 1 and 2 percent. As I say, there oughta be a law, and I don’t mean price controls.

I particularly appreciate the concision of former Obama administration economist Jason Furman’s comments to the New York Times. “Egg prices went up last year — it’s because there weren’t as many eggs, and it caused more egg production,” Furman told the Times. More generally, he observed, “This is not sensible policy, and I think the biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality. There’s no upside here, and there is some downside.”

Here is a slightly more expansive statement of the case by David Friedberg flagged by Elon Musk. Friedberg is founder and CEO of The Production Board and co-host of the All-In podcast.

Speaking of concision, I admire Friedberg’s axiom below. It also bears on Harris’s truth gouging.

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