EXCERPTS:
"There’s good reason for the widespread condemnation of anti-gouging laws: they are—almost—universally harmful. There’s no public good or special interest benefited by the laws. And especially when it comes to necessities like gasoline, the harm they do is sharply felt by a large part of the population.
"So why do we have these stupid laws at all?
***
"As it turns out there is one set of actors who does benefit from these laws—politicians. Anti-gouging laws allow politicians to appear as if they are defending the interests of the people in a time of crisis—even if they are actually doing nothing of the sort. The politicians who vote for the laws tout them as “consumer protection” and the politicians who enforce them almost always do so loudly and obviously, condemning profiteers. The typical impotence of politicians in the face of a crisis is concealed by their intervention against higher prices.
"This malarkey is made possible because there is no visible, directly observable connection between the shortage and the price-control. It takes at least a moment’s concentration to connect the dots, and the politicians do everything they can do prevent such concentration from happening.
