price gouging

Gasoline Retailer Getting Gouged by New Jersey Attorney General?

Michael Giberson Last week the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General announced settlement of two of the 24 post-Sandy price gouging cases the state has pursued. Shiv Shivam Inc., doing business as Lukoil in Piscataway agreed to pay $20,000 to the state; C.S. George & Sons, Inc., doing business as George’s Gulf Station in …

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Notes on the Post-sandy Nj/nyc Black Market in Gasoline

Michael Giberson Jeffrey Tucker at Laissez Faire Today points out Peter C. Earle’s blog on the emergence of a black market in gasoline in northern New Jersey and New York City during the post-Storm Sandy period. A few days after the storm swept through, when politicians began reasserting their willingness to enforce price gouging limits …

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Norwalk Connecticut Gas Station Settles on Charges of Sandy-related Price Gouging

Michael Giberson When it comes to gasoline price increases, how much do prices have to rise before a price increase is “unconscionably excessive”? What difference between prices before and after a declaration of emergency is large enough to create a “gross disparity”? Twenty percent? Ten percent? Five? In Connecticut these days it looks like a …

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Hoffman on Price Gouging (in Which I Take on Claims Made in a 7-year Old Blog Post)

While seeking out the guns and ammo price gouging post at Mother Jones (see link here) I came across a post-Katrina 2005 Political Mojo post by Bradford Plumer on price gouging that I don’t recall having seen before, and it provides a link to a Dave Hoffman post-Katrina post at PrawfsBlawg that actually advances some …

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Mother Jones on Guns and Ammo Price Gouging

Michael Giberson A post at Mother Jones‘s Political Mojo blog sees a silver lining in current price gouging on guns (see “Gun Lovers Freaking Out Over Price Gouging“): “It might help keep sales in check—at least temporarily—while Congress gets around to thinking about thinking about considering an assault-weapon ban.” Well, technically speaking, current prices and …

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Economics Research Topics in Price Gouging from Odd-even Rationing to Guilt and Shame

Michael Giberson Today the Master Resource blog published my list of ten price gouging topics needing economic research. As I point out in the introduction, many economists think price gouging  is too simple to be worth studying. After all, it is just a kind of price cap, and we know how price caps work. My response is that …

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New York Newspaper Says “Add Shame to Penalty for Gouging”

Michael Giberson Is price gouging like highway robbery? The Journal News, from the suburbs north of New York City, said: “Add shame to penalty for gouging“: Given the extraordinary cost of just about everything in New York, it is often difficult to distinguish price-gouging, which is both illegal and despicable, from the usual highway robbery, …

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New Yorkers Didn’t ‘share the Pain’ of Higher Gasoline Prices During Emergency

Michael Giberson One idea advanced by proponents of anti-price gouging laws is that after disaster strikes people should put aside their usual self-interests, join in with the community, and share in the burden of recovery. What these proponents often miss is that normal market adjustments will support a sharing in the burden of recovery, even …

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