Today’s quote comes to us from commentator/economist Larry Kudlow. It concerns Kamala Harris’ promise to lower food costs by implementing “a federal ban” on price gauging (I assume she meant price gouging).
Here is Mr. Kudlow’s take on Harris’s promise – which got a rousing reception when voiced to a crowd of supporters (as anything she said to a crowd of supporters would, of course):
“Look, this is price controls by any other name. I mean, it’s like a sheep in sheep’s clothing. It’s price controls because it’s price controls.
“We know how bad that turned out for Nixon. Price controls never worked in Russia, Soviet Union, Venezuela, Cuba. They never worked. They cause shortages. They cause black markets, and eventually they cause higher prices because the controls are lifted because people are yelling about shortages. But no one really knows what she means by price gouging. There’s no definition.
“There is a lot of blah, blah, blah in their announcement about rules and the Federal Trade Commission — well, the Federal Trade Commission has tried a bunch of cases about price gouging or so-called corporate greed, and they’ve lost them all over the past three and a half years.
“One more thing. Ms. Harris yelling about beef producers, I guess, and poultry producers, and grocery stores, so I looked at their corporate margins. Are they making any money? I mean, if they are gouging somebody, Bret, they must be enormously profitable, and they are not,” Kudlow continued. “The grocery stores’ profit margins: 1.2%. Meat, beef and poultry: 4.7%. All of American business, 8.5%.
“Look, if she wants to go after somebody for making too much money, here’s what Apple: 26%, Microsoft: 36%, NVIDIA: 53%. You see where I’m going on this? There’s no case to be made, no one knows what it is. But it’s bad, if it ever worked it would be bad.”
Bottom line? Price controls are a disaster. They have always been a disaster. They never work. And making industries with tiny profit margins the villains, to miseducate the public and get some of their votes, dishonest and repulsive.
I award Larry Kudlow Quote Of The Day honor for pointing this out so clearly…not that it will affect anything that Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz say. If they think it can get them votes, nothing is off the table. Period.
