Giberson Makes His Mark on Wall Street and Other Notes on Price Gouging Commentary

I get a mention in the September 12, 2017, Deal Book column in the New York Times:

“Price caps discourage extraordinary supply efforts that would help bring goods in high demand into the affected area,” Michael Giberson, an instructor with the Center for Energy Commerce in the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University, wrote in an opinion piece from several years ago that was widely circulated around parts of Wall Street this weekend. Meanwhile, he suggested, “You discourage conservation of needed goods at exactly the time they are in high demand.”

He added, “In a classic case of unintended consequences, the law harms the very people whom lawmakers intend to help.”

My Regulation magazine piece was “widely circulated around parts of Wall Street this weekend”? I guess I have now achieved my high school ambition to make my mark on Wall Street.

I was also quoted on Marketplace radio program’s September 1 story on price gouging with the same economically-informed, popularly-disdained view.

And I’m not the only one. There has been a modest outbreak of price gouging commentary from economists.

For a different view, at the Harvard Business Review blog pricing strategy consultant Rafi Mohammed explains, “Why Businesses Should Lower Prices During Natural Disasters.”