The Harris-Walz campaign has said they want to create a federal ban on corporate price gouging (usually mentioned when folks talk about price hikes in grocery stores). I see economists complaining about variations of this policy being bad, e.g. leading to food desserts. But as far as I can tell there hasn’t been anything specific proposed. Could someone explain our best guess at what they are proposing, and if it’s been serious analyzed/tested elsewhere?
They cite existing legislation in the states; maybe explaining what that legislation does/how it works would be helpful?
My cynical view is that this is a campaign promise that even if passed, won’t lead to anything of benefit for the average citizen. My solidly blue state has price gouging laws and yet businesses were permitted to price gouge water, charging as much as $60 for a 12 pack of bottles, when we had a toxic algae bloom in our water supply and couldn’t drink it a few years ago. Hundreds of complaints were filed and the governor went on the news said they couldn’t substantiate any of it, even with photo evidence, and none of the companies were punished or at most were sent a letter to “knock it off” even though residents were still having to pay these insane prices if they weren’t able to drive hours away to find normally priced bottled water.
I think if we had an actual left-wing party, I’d have a different view, but instead, we have right-wing and diet-right-wing