Fronts in the war on prices

There's more than one way to mess with a price

Author

Janet Bufton
May 15, 2025

I’m at Econlog this afternoon airing a grievance about one way markets are defended.

More Fronts in the War on Prices - Econlib

Sometimes, people who argue that there are negative unintended consequences don’t seem to understand why. In particular, when those who are against price controls also support policies that intervene in price signals less directly.

www.econlib.org/more-fronts-in-the-war-on-prices

The policy that drew my ire is the promise from Canadian political parties (including the current government) to use tighter limits on immigration to as part of their plan to address the housing crisis.

A friend once used a funny story to describe how he thinks about market interference. He said that when looking at a market that’s dysfunctional under heavy intervention, deciding to intervene further is like taking a bite of a burger topped with hot relish, cotton candy, olives, jam, pickles, and cottage cheese and saying, “That tastes terrible! We’d better add some malt vinegar.”

The housing market is in shambles. That’s terrible! Let’s mess with the labour market.

More seriously, both direct price controls (price caps, anti-gouging, rent control) and indirect price controls (through trying to control demand or inputs) are going to mess with our ability to economize on resources and boost productivity. A shallow understanding that lets someone understand that rent control is a problem because it interferes with prices, but not that the same problems apply to restrictive zoning and immigration caps, leaves us poorly positioned to assess policy and government performance.

Some good stuff

In case you don’t know, Jonathan Blanks’ work is self-recommending. Here he is at The Bulwark: Popular Resistance to Trump is Working.

A throwback (from 2011) from my late friend Steve, on my mind a lot lately: The Other Principle of Classical Liberalism.

Berny Belvedere and Alan Hayman at The UnPopulist dismantle some of the arguments that I see credulous advocates of smaller government repeat about DOGE and USAID, USIP, and the Social Security Administration: DOGE’s Cruelty—and Lies—Will Taint the Cause of Downsizing Government.

Finally, I am thinking a lot about The Present Crisis and the End of the Long ‘90s by Samantha Hancox-Li at Liberal Currents. I’m thinking about it so much that we should probably devote more brains to thinking about it. Give it a read.

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Featured photo by Shubham Sharan on Unsplash.