Almost the entire democratic House majority, aided by 56 wayward republicans, passed a blatant assault on free market principles in H.R. 1252: Federal Price Gouging Prevention Act. Price gouging is that terrible act of charging a price that the market will bear but that government or some other party judges to be “excessive”. Naturally, this attitudes prevents the rapid influx of needed goods from arriving into disaster areas by prohibiting the market from providing incentives for the selling of these goods. The result is a prolonged period shortages, but at least when you go to the store in search of needed supplies you can rest assured that, had they any to begin with, you wouldn’t have paid too much for them.

This particular piece of legislation is aimed only at gasoline and petroleum products, but that provides little comfort. Price controls are never good policy; but when you elect a group of demagogues you get demagogic policy.

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