Source: Cato Institute
by Ryan Bourne & Sophia Bagley
“One of the underappreciated costs of high inflation is that volatile prices encourage bad policy responses. We’ve seen this in the presidential election. Former President Trump has used dissatisfaction with the cost of living to muse on the idea of the president having a more direct role in setting monetary policy. Vice President Kamala Harris, on the other hand, has dabbled with kook theories implying high inflation was driven by corporate greed or price gouging. This is the ‘intellectual’ fuel behind her promise of rent control and anti-price gouging laws for groceries. A new survey of the 44 prominent economists in the Kent Clark U.S. Economic Experts panel reminds us that economists overwhelmingly reject these ideas as nonsense.” (09/13/24)