WASHINGTON – The Competitiveness Coalition wasn’t the only one taken aback by Vice President Kamala Harris’ “price gouging” scheme. Over the weekend, a chorus of voices spanning from normally friendly editorial boards and economists piled on, including:
- The Washington Post Editorial Board, August 16, 2024: “Never mind that many stores are currently slashing prices in response to renewed consumer bargain hunting. Ms. Harris says she’ll target companies that make ‘excessive’ profits, whatever that means. (It’s hard to see how groceries, a notoriously low-margin business, would qualify.)”
- Jason Furman, Former Deputy Director of the National Economic Council in the Obama Administration, The New York Times, August 15, 2024: “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.”
- Catherine Rampell, Washington Post Economic Columnist, August 16, 2024: “It’s hard to exaggerate how bad this policy is. It is, in all but name, a sweeping set of government-enforced price controls across every industry, not only food. Supply and demand would no longer determine prices or profit levels. Far-off Washington bureaucrats would. The FTC would be able to tell, say, a Kroger in Ohio the acceptable price it can charge for milk.”
- Gavin Roberts, Economics Chair at Weber State University, CNN, August 16, 2024: “While Harris claims her proposal ‘will help the food industry become more competitive,’ Roberts said it would do just the opposite. ‘It’s more likely to maintain that status quo,’ he said because it would keep new competition from moving in to take advantage of the bigger profit margins — competition that could have helped lower prices in the long run.”
- Joshua Hendrickson, University of Mississippi Professor of Economics, The New York Times, August 15, 2024: “If prices are rising on average over time and profit margins expand, that might look like price gouging, but it’s actually indicative of a broad increase in demand.”
- Glynn Tonsor, Kansas State University Agricultural Economist, Newsweek, August 16, 2024: “Yes, consumers are seeing higher prices, but it doesn’t necessarily mean someone is gouging them.”
- Scott Lincicome, VP of Economics at Cato Institute, Newsweek, August 16, 2024: “Preventing price increases sounds good, but what do investors and farmers do when they can’t guarantee a return on investment or cover their costs? They cut back on investment, leading to reduced supply and even higher prices or outright shortages.”
- Michael Ashton, managing principal at Enduring Investments LLC, USA Today, August 16, 2024: “‘Why did the price gouging just start in 2021-22?’ he asked. ‘Did grocers just not realize they had this power before then or did they not get greedy until 2021?’ ”
Members of the press can contact the coalition at press@competitivenesscoalition.com.
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The Competitiveness Coalition is a first-of-its-kind group educating the public and advocating for policies that put consumers first while fostering innovation and attracting new investment.