Accused of price gouging after Harvey hit Texas, the businesses that raised prices might actually have been helping people.…
How Venezuela’s Price Ceilings Are Moving
While Venezuela’s price ceilings created life threatening shortages and distorted incentives, lifting them will temporarily result in more distress.…
The Upside of Price Gouging
During the Hurricane Katrina clean-up, a man from Kentucky loaded 19 generators onto his rented U-Haul. Driving 600 miles to an area of Mississippi with no power, he tried to sell them. His price was …
The Strange World of Venezuelan Hyperinflation
Because of hyperinflation, Venezuela needs billions of bank notes so that businesses and consumers can pay the insane prices that rise daily.…
Venezuela's Biggest Economic Problem
The perverse incentives created by Venezuelan price controls result in shortages, underutilized resources, wasted time, soaring inflation and hoarding.…
Venezuela Has Cheap Gas But No Cars
At the official exchange rate, Venezuelans pay 5 cents a gallon for premium gasoline while the real price is closer to one half penny a gallon. The dark purple country at the northern tip of South Ame…
Subsidies: Fueling Egyptian Turmoil
The time is 8 am. During March 2012, 200 people at a depot just west of Cairo are waiting for a truck delivery of butane cylinders. One gentleman yells, “Please, I’ve been waiting for 10 d…
Price Ceilings: Venezuelan Toilet Paper Shortages
One shopper had to search for toilet paper in 6 stores. Another arrived in a supermarket just after a delivery but was limited to a 4-roll maximum. Attempting to deal with its toilet paper shortage, t…
Do You Like Rent Control?
Asked if it makes sense to mandate lower rents for some apartments in large cities, many of us say yes. Lower rents facilitate diversity and they enable middle income municipal workers to live close t…
Just Desserts
Our story begins in 1920 with some ice cream, some chocolate and a stick. A candy maker decided to coat the ice cream with the chocolate, insert the stick and freeze it. Patenting the stick idea, he c…