Portside

Kamala Harris’s proposed price-gouging ban might irritate academics, but it makes sense to everyone else.

Used electric cars are not just cheap—they are cheaper than similar gas cars.

The real source of too many price hikes is concentrated market power, not macroeconomic overheating.

Since President Biden took office, the media have run a constant stream of news stories about how high various prices were and telling their audiences that this has led to mass suffering.

A reign of terror from coast to coast

It would be irresponsible to create much higher unemployment – and the US economy could be pushed into recession. There is a strong argument for the Fed to take a break from its aggressive monetary-policy tightening.

The European Union’s power sector is an example of what market fundamentalism has done to electricity networks. With the end of cheap natural gas, retail consumers and businesses are paying the price for their governments’ embrace of a shoddy theory.

Today’s inflation is driven largely by supply-side constraints, which call for supply-side solutions. Such measures would do as much to tame higher prices as limited increases in interest rates would, and they would not come at the expense of American workers and the broader economy.

Should Jerome Powell put on his Paul Volcker outfit and push interest rates through the roof? I would argue that, while modest rate hikes are appropriate, it is too soon to bring out the heavy artillery.

Companies are raising prices well above increases in their costs. The only antidote is to finally take action against corporate power.