Michael Giberson
Art Carden, in his Economic Imagination blog at Forbes.com, explains “Price Gouging Laws Hurt Storm Victims.”
How many people see natural disasters like the tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Joplin, Missouri and say “we should be working to impede the recovery and make life harder for storm victims?” Probably no one. How many people see prices rise after natural disasters like the tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Joplin Missouri and say “we should prosecute ‘price gougers!’”? Probably a lot. And yet prosecuting price gougers makes life harder for storm victims.
I like Carden’s article not because he quotes my Regulation article on price gouging and gives me another reason to link to it (well, I like Carden’s article not only because…), but because he states the main problem with price gouging laws so clearly: “prosecuting price gougers makes life harder for storm victims.”