Search Results for: price gouging giberson

Are New Jersey ‘outsiders’ More Likely to Be Accused of Price Gouging?

Michael Giberson A few weeks ago I posted “Are ‘outsiders’ more likely to be accused of price gouging?” Having noticed that all four persons arrested in Mississippi for price gouging after Hurricane Isaac had surnames indicating family origins in India, I wondered about the potential for discrimination in the application of price gouging laws. First, …

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Are ‘outsiders’ More Likely to Be Accused of Price Gouging?

Michael Giberson Are price gouging laws applied fairly? This past week Tropical Storm/Hurricane Isaac lead to disaster declarations and the invocation of price gouging laws in several gulf states. Here are a few selected quotes from all four price-gouging related press releases issued last week by Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood: August 28: “Attorney General …

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Price Gouging Worries in the Aftermath of Mid-atlantic Thunderstorms, Power Outages

Michael Giberson The thunderstorms that tore up the Mid-Atlantic at the end of June left many thousands of people without power, sometimes for several days, during some unusually hot early summer weather. Among other things, the aftermath has been filled with price gouging complaints directed at hotels, gasoline stations, and retailers selling ice (and another). Maryland …

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Poor Market Design Causing High Prices in Diablo Iii Auction House?

Michael Giberson  I don’t play Diablo III, but I do follow price gouging discussions online, which led me to this post on the Diablo III discussion forum: “Auction House and Price Gouging.” The initial complaint comes from a player trying to equip a new character through purchases in the Auction House, an in-game player-to-player trading mechanism, and …

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Price Gouging in Literature: Little House on the Prairie’s “The Long Winter”

Michael Giberson Jeremy’s Blog at LDSLiberty.org comments on a price gouging episode in The Long Winter, the sixth book in the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Due to a long winter of snow and storms, the people in the town of De Smet are at the point of starving.  Suddenly …

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Great Strides Have Been Made Combating Price Gougers in Venzuela

Michael Giberson Venezuela “President” Hugo Chávez  has put his government strongly behind efforts to combat price gouging, which in this context means selling a good for more than the government’s permitted price. The policy has had the usual effects: shortages of ordinary consumer goods and queues reminiscent of Soviet-style communism. The New York Times reports, …

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Zwolinski: “Is Price Gouging Immoral? Should It Be Illegal?”

Michael Giberson Five minutes of Matt Zwolinski on price gouging (from Learn Liberty). [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9QEkw6_O6w] If you think price gouging should be against the law, watch this video. Are you persuaded by Zwolinski? Let me know in the comments. MORE: Zwolinski has written serious philosophical works on price gouging,which makes the clarity of his position in …

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Are Refiners and Wholesalers Price Gouging on Petroleum Products in Alaska?

Michael Giberson As the chart below shows, during the summer of 2008 gasoline prices in Anchorage, Alaska switched from following typical prices in the lower 48 to a modest but notable amount above such typical prices. Not shown, but you can check it out at Gasbuddy.com where I generated the chart, after the summer of …

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Super Bowl Price Gouging Complaints

Michael Giberson If you follow price gouging headlines, you become accustomed to seeing price gouging stories around big sports events: the Rugby World Cup, NASCAR races, NCAA basketball finals, and always the Olympics (a selection: Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Salt Lake City 2002, Athens 2004, Vancouver 2010, London 2012, and finally this extreme example). All of …

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Price Gouging Allegations on Cancer Drugs

Michael Giberson If you think political interference in gasoline markets is excessive, try reading about drug pricing for a while. From the Los Angeles Times: “Shortage of cancer drugs tied to simple economics, experts say.” And by “simple economics” they mean the perverse incentives created by government regulation that induce oncologists to prefer prescribing more …

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