Harris’ ‘Illiteracy’ on Prices ‘Surprising in a Responsible’ Candidate Whose Administration Helped Cause Inflation

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” The New York Times Columnist David Brooks said 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris’ “price gouging” proposal shows “a staggering level of economic ignorance for a responsible Democratic candidate.” He said the whole idea is to convince people that “inflation was much lower under the Obama and Bush administrations, and people weren’t greedy then. And then Biden came into office and all of a sudden, like magic, everyone got greedy and started gouging prices.” Brooks also said the Biden administration’s over-stimulation of the economy has fueled inflation.

“I think the child tax credit is a good thing. She wants to ease housing regulations so people can have more housing. But price gouging is what Katherine Rampell is all about,” Brooks said. The Washington Post Columnist and NewsHour contributor Katherine says it’s impossible to overstate how terrible this policy is, and I agree. Katherine says that if they’re going to call you a communist, don’t start with price controls. Price controls just create shortages. They create black markets. You saw it in Venezuela. You saw it in the Soviet Union. Price controls don’t work. The worst thing about it is, first of all, you’re trying to address a problem that doesn’t exist. Food price inflation has been under 1% for the past year. It’s over. There was a spike, but it’s over. The problem doesn’t exist.”

“But the real problem is that it shows a surprising level of economic ignorance for a responsible Democratic candidate,” he continued. “The idea behind greed flation is that under the Obama and Bush administrations, we had years of low inflation. And I don’t think people were greedy then. And then Biden got in, and all of a sudden, like magic, everybody got greedy and started jacking up prices. And they did it.” [Kroger]at Harris Teeter, at HEB. All of a sudden, this massive price gouging has happened. And she thinks she can prosecute it. That’s not why inflation has skyrocketed. Inflation has skyrocketed because the pandemic hit, it disrupted supply chains and productivity, and then the Biden administration overstimulated the economy, and too many dollars chased too few goods.[s] At the time, Jason Furman said, ‘This will be inflationary,’ and lo and behold, that’s exactly what happened.”