{"id":1173509,"date":"2021-12-30T18:49:43","date_gmt":"2021-12-30T23:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1173509"},"modified":"2021-12-30T18:49:44","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T23:49:44","slug":"british-news-outlet-suggests-using-price-controls-to-fight-inflation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/british-news-outlet-suggests-using-price-controls-to-fight-inflation\/","title":{"rendered":"British News Outlet Suggests Using \u2018Price Controls\u2019 To Fight Inflation"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbritish-news-outlet-suggests-using-price-controls-to-fight-inflation%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1173509&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In an opinion piece for British news outlet The Guardian, University of Massachusetts economics professor Isabella Weber said that policymakers should consider implementing price controls to combat inflation.<\/p>\n<p>Noting the fact that inflation is near a four-decade high, Weber <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/commentisfree\/2021\/dec\/29\/inflation-price-controls-time-we-use-it?utm_term=Autofeed&amp;CMP=twt_gu&amp;utm_medium&amp;utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1640776964\">argued<\/a> that an \u201cexplosion in profits\u201d is at least partially responsible. She drew an analogy to the aftermath of World War II and economists\u2019 calls for price controls:<\/p>\n<p>Some of the most distinguished American economists of the 20th century called for a continuation of price controls in the New York Times. This included the likes of Paul Samuelson, Irving Fisher, Frank Knight, Simon Kuznets, Paul Sweezy and Wesley Mitchell, as well as 11 former presidents of the American Economic Association. The reasons they presented for price controls also apply to our present situation.<\/p>\n<p>They argued that as long as bottlenecks made it impossible for supply to meet demand, price controls for important goods should be continued to prevent prices from shooting up. The tsar of wartime price controls, John Kenneth Galbraith, joined these calls. He explained \u201cthe role of price controls\u201d would be \u201cstrategic\u201d. \u201cNo more than the economist ever supposed will it stop inflation,\u201d he added. \u201cBut it both establishes the base and gains the time for the measures that do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To support her reasoning, Weber invoked the need to fight climate change and the decision of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to pull support from President Joe Biden\u2019s domestic agenda:<\/p>\n<p>Price controls would buy time to deal with bottlenecks that will continue as long as the pandemic prevails. Strategic price controls could also contribute to the monetary stability needed to mobilize public investments towards economic resilience, climate change mitigation and carbon-neutrality. The cost of waiting for inflation to go away is high. Senator Manchin\u2019s withdrawal from the Build Back Better Act demonstrates the threat of a shrinking policy space at a time when large scale government action is in order. Austerity would be even worse: it risks manufacturing stagflation.<\/p>\n<p>In an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cato.org\/blog\/get-ready-price-controls-inflation-accelerates\">article<\/a> published earlier this year, James Dorn \u2014 the vice president for monetary studies at the Cato Institute \u2014 rightly predicted that progressives would begin calling for price controls as inflation continued to accelerate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf inflation persists, and the Fed caters to political pressure to keep rates near zero to finance the growing federal debt and prop up asset prices, it would be tempting for progressives to call for price controls,\u201d Dorn argued. \u201cThose controls would be dressed up as a temporary measure to stabilize prices and win votes, but they would not address the underlying inflationary pressures stemming from excessive money growth and fiscal dominance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dorn referred to the loss of economic freedom witnessed amid the price control regime of the 1970s \u2014 during which President Richard Nixon was <a href=\"https:\/\/fraser.stlouisfed.org\/files\/docs\/publications\/ERP\/1972\/ERP1972_Chapter2.pdf\">granted<\/a> the authority to \u201cinitiate overall restraints on wages, prices, and rents in the face of an exceptionally stubborn inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe risk is that fiscal dominance will prevail and executive privilege will once again be used to impose price controls that will temporarily suppress inflation and create shortages, just as in 1971,\u201d Dorn continued. \u201cA short period of price controls like in 1971 is especially attractive as it would be used to smooth over the volatility as the economy returns to pre\u2010\u200bpandemic norms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe challenge for the Fed is to avoid being captured by fiscal doves and those who see the Fed as a vehicle for satisfying special interests,\u201d he added. \u201cAlthough we are far from the double\u2010\u200bdigit inflation of the 1970s, an acceleration of inflation from its current levels could make the idea of price controls attractive. The Fed is on a tightrope: it has to avoid excessive money growth but not move prematurely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">member<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an opinion piece for British news outlet The Guardian, University of Massachusetts economics professor Isabella Weber said that policymakers should consider implementing price controls to combat inflation. Noting the fact that inflation is near a four-decade high, Weber argued that an \u201cexplosion in profits\u201d is at least partially responsible. She drew an analogy to &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1173509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1173509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1173509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1173509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1173509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}