Some people believe that price-controls could never happen in the United States.
However, Kamala Harris made enacting Federal Law to eliminate "price-gouging" a significant part of her campaign for President. The words she chose were slightly different, but she did that to "spin" the message into the most favorable, emotional light.
One of the enormous failings of the Soviet economy was the lack of a mechanism to address dire shortages. Suppose it is the start of planting season and an employee at the warehouse failed to put air and oil filters into the delivery for the tractors. In a market-economy, the maintenance boss would call around to other farms to see who had extra filters. Then he would hand a trusted mechanic whatever amount of money it took to buy the filters and the keys to a truck.
24 hours later, the tractors would be out in the fields planting...even if the maintenance boss had to pay a three-hundred percent mark-up.
The same thing happens in every ice-storm in Michigan. Ice-storms might be 300 miles long but they are rarely much more than 50 miles wide due to the narrow temperatures which allow them to happen.
All of the generators at the big-box stores sell out in a heart-beat due to power-outages.
Enterprising people hop into their pickup trucks and drive 75 miles to Indiana or Ohio and buy as many generators as will fit in the bed of their truck. Then they go back home and put an ad in Facebook Marketplace "GENERATORS, New in Box" and list them for twice the normal selling price.
If any are left, they drive them back to where they bought them and return them for a refund.
So, if you basement is flooding because your sump-pump isn't pumping, or if you have an emotionally fragile kid going bananas...you cheerfully pay an extra $600 to have a generator delivered to your door while you calm your kid and keep humping buckets of water up the stairs and dumping it outside.
Let me offer a third example: Suppose there was a petroleum tank-fire on the west coast. Allowing the price of fuel to free-float would price "marginal uses" out of economic reach. Manuel cannot afford to drive to his landscaping job and more business gets done via Zoom. If legislation and legal entanglement cripple the price mechanism, Manuel and Vern drive until the remaining tanks are empty and then ambulances and emergency generators fall silent for lack of fuel.
A disaster in one area can be helped with those "enterprising souls" that run needed supplies at a price there.
ReplyDeleteWhen the disaster becomes country wide there is less "extra" here to sell elsewhere.
The strength of a society is tested in those times. The Great Depression springs to mind. The "fix it, make it do, or do without" mindset was popularized by the news while they blamed Hoover for everything (Shanty towns called Hoovervilles, hot dogs called Hoover Steaks, etc.).
Most of our Great Depression stories are prettied up sanitized "History". Plenty of anger at "the MAN" as exampled at the glorifying of murderers like Bonnie and Clyde as failure to pay DEBTS and TAXES put many folks out of their homes and farms.
Bankers protected by the Sherriff on the courthouse steps divvying up fore closured homes-farms for pennies on the dollar.
Do we have the social strength to withstand a national economic disaster?
In the failing Roman Empire, they used Bread and Circuses to keep the mob's content. The DEBASEMENT of the silver Denari from a trusted worldwide trade coin to a silver-plated copper slug resulted as welfare and foolish warfare drained the treasury.
Today it's Mass Media, social media, EBT, and The Federal; Reserve "printing dollars" so they can BUY our US Treasury Bills so on as well as Epstein's Fury war (soon to add Cuba it seems).
Sadly, I expect Populist EBT EMERGENCY extra Funding (further raising prices and putting fixed income seniors out of luck) "price controls" blaming the GREEDY Farmers and Grocery Stores and anything that transfers the failures of the Governmental foolish actions to others.
And again Bankers (Blackrock etc.) will again buy up foreclosures for pennies on the dollar as more folks find themselves homeless.
The failure of EBT a year or two back resulted in mass stealing of loaded grocery carts as the Government just reimbursed the stores for. The "I can't breathe" riots show that simmering violence needs little trigger to show up as weak police responses encouraged them and Liberal Judges just release them almost before the paperwork is done.
Lack of fuel also equals lack of grid power as so much is fueled by Natty Gas, Oil and so on, also equals lack of food in the grocery stores as diesel runs the trucks and such.
Might be a really "interesting" summer-fall-winter folks.
What does Proverbs 27:12 say?
You are regurgitating the standard pseudohistory of the Great Depression created by FDR apologists. The worst lie here is the bankers/foreclosures trope. Banks failed not due to Wall Street tycoons or greedy investors, rather they failed due to unit banking laws. Bank investors were entitled to sell pledged property after the mortgages failed. The failure to recoup investments set off a cascade of economic failure.
DeleteStudy the Great Depression in Canada and Great Britain and you will immediately recognize the fallacy of the FDR apologists. Unit banking, an anticapitalist project of the progressives, destroyed the rural economies in the 1930's.
Hoover does deserve considerable blame for the severity of the Great Depression. He spent three years trying to enforce informal wage and price floors which stifled economic activity. FDR was Hoover on steroids, and New Deal I and II crushed remaining economic activity in the USA long after foreign economies had recovered..
Buddy I have FAMILY HISTORY and that of diaries of that era.
DeleteOne question sir, are you doing anything to protect your family when the situation gets real.
Michael the anonymous
Plomo y Plata. Sin Deudas
DeleteI have family photos, movies, diaries, and a trove of memorabilia from that era. Interviewed CCC's and many other economically displaced into the 1980's, when thay all started to pass.
You need to read 'The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression' by Hillsdale alumna Amity Shlaes.
I wholeheartedly agree with the recommendation for 'The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression' by Amity Shlaes.
DeleteIronically (perhaps) Trump's personality has some similarities to FDR's. FDR was notorious for "flailing", for launching three or four initiatives with the same objective. He got joy out of tweaking the nose of the British, sending Joe Kennedy to be the ambassador (Kennedy was a gangster and hated the British Monarchy).
That is, FDR loved creating chaos and was energized by it. He loved attention.
+1 for "The Forgotten Man". It is very well written and definitely gives a different view of The Great Depression.
DeleteThe Wikipedia article about the Forgotten Man is interesting. Well received by Newt Gringrich not so well by others.
DeleteI'll have to read it myself soon.
Meanwhile after I donated the diaries and scrapbooks of actual newspaper articles of the age to our State Museum and they preserved them and displayed them I got copies of the restorations.
I am reading articles glorifying Bonnie and Clyde, Articles about homesteads sold on the courthouse steps for debt and back taxes.
So I am confused why I am "10x25mmMay 23, 2026 at 10:16 AM
You are regurgitating the standard pseudohistory of the Great Depression created by FDR apologists. ".
Please find time to explain this and why the mafia silver or lead and no debts was deployed.
Your question to me: "One question sir, are you doing anything to protect your family when the situation gets real."
DeleteMy answer: "Plomo y Plata. Sin Deudas"
The traditional protections against hard times by the many Spanish speakers in my 'hood'. A number of whom I interviewed about their experiences in the 1930's. It translates to "Hold lead and silver, but no debt." (The lead is indeed a reference to ammunition, as a foundation of personal security.) Not certain how you connect this to the mafia.
The standard pseudohistory of the Great Depression created by FDR apologists blames Wall Street meanies for foreclosures and Sheriff's auctions. Those auctions became necessary precisely because the idiot prairie populists (the AOCs of their day) prohibited banks from affiliating with or being owned by money center banks - both in other cities and in other states. These were called unit banking laws. The idiot socialists kept Wall Street out of town and their fat, dumb, and happy local bankers in charge, but there was no cavalry to rescue those unit banks with cash when local factors such as a dust bowl drought or local crop price collapse struck. No risk management at all. Unit banks collapsed across the country, starting years before Black Friday.
The "meanie Sheriffs" were auctioning properties on behalf of DEPOSITORS IN THE FAILING BANKS WHICH MADE THE MORTGAGES, NOT WALL STREET. Had the depositors not received some recompense for the failed mortgages, they too would have headed to the poorhouse.
An interesting viewpoint, thanks for sharing.
DeleteSo, local banks didn't have the resources. Seems state rights (AOC's of that era) were still honored over Central Federal Reserve powers that were created in 1913 (well before the Great Depression).
Historically in that era bank failures were common well before the Great Depression but were LOCALIZED issues and resolved by reorganization.
Like Bankruptcy was designed to resolve failing businesses. People lost money on bad investments and moved onward.
Not exactly like the Great Depression that had world wide issues going on.
Is this information enclosed in that book the "Forgotten Man"? If so, a required reading soon.
In expansion of my question do you support the current efforts of the Federal Reserve in our nation's current DEBT growth of some SNIP
U.S. National Debt Growth Over 100 Days
The U.S. national debt is currently growing at a pace of about $1 trillion every 100 days CNBC.
SNIP U.S. Interest on the National Debt
As of the latest available data, the United States is paying about $952 billion in net interest on the national debt each year www.us-debt-clock.com. This figure represents the total cost of servicing the federal debt — the interest paid to holders of Treasury securities minus any interest income from trust funds.
BTW I checked this debt servicing is not reflecting the recent 10 year T-bill going to SNIP
Current Yield and Market Data
As of May 18, 2026, the 10-year Treasury yield is 4.61%, slightly up from 4.59% the previous day and higher than the long-term average of 4.25%
On a current but rising national debt as of today 39 Trillion dollars the rising interest rate adds up to some serious money.
These little factoids are why I am so concerned about economic troubles and the Historical social disruptions that follow.
I'd love some insight on how were going to somehow PULL a Roman Empire Tiberius and slow or reverse our economic madness.
"Historically in that era bank failures were common well before the Great Depression but were LOCALIZED issues and resolved by reorganization."
DeleteBetween 1907 and 1927 (the Great Flood), bank failures were rare. The Great Flood triggered the first wave of widespread bank failures attributed to the Great Depression as the entire Mississippi valley was inundated. One-third of all U.S. banks failed between 1930 and 1933 as the aftershocks of the Great Flood played out, but deposit losses were modest, averaging only about 4% of total deposits, as depositors typically received around 80 cents on the dollar - FROM FORECLOSURES. This kept the banking sector from causing an even worse depression.
The Federal Reserve attempted to inoculate the economy against what they thought was too much money in the U.S. economy (coming from Europe for a safe haven after the 1931 Österreichische Credit-Anstalt collapse, not U.S. federal spending). This attempt by the Federal Reserve to restrain inflation touched off the first wave of the Great Depression in the U.S. The lesson here is the Federal Reserve cannot safely reduce the public debt through FOMOs. The public debt can only be reduced by Congress.
The second wave of the Great Depression, which spanned 1937 and 1938, was far worse. Congress sucked cash out of the economy with Social Security taxes and other New Deal II programs. Massive deflation ensued and unemployment hit 40% for at least 12 months. Only the British Purchasing Mission rescued the American economy. So you have to be careful about Congress reversing course as well.
Much of this is covered in Shlaes' Forgotten Man. The real authority is 'A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960' by Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz.
The FDIC didn't exist until 1933, so there was no backstop for a small bank suffering a run on withdrawals, so the banks were forced to liquidate their assets (call mortgages) to have the cash on hand. Handing a run without some kind of protection is one of the hidden risks of fractional-reserve banking.
DeleteThat is why Michael Banks refusing to hand over his money triggering a run on his father's bank was a plot point in Mary Poppins.
"Some people believe that price-controls could never happen in the United States."
ReplyDeleteOn Aug. 15, 1971, in a nationally televised address, Nixon announced, "I am today ordering a freeze on all prices and wages throughout the United States."
The Nixon price controls were only one of the six price control campaigns during Century XX in the United States. The only price controls which worked to any degree were the OPA efforts during WW II, and that was due to coincidental rationing.
DeletePrice controls cannot work without rationing due to pervasive hoarding.
And the people who are smart, and pre stock the oil and air filters are unaffected, and those who have fuel in tanks are somewhat less affected for a time. (And they already have a working generator)
ReplyDeletePrice controls work well in a free market, as the scarcer a thing is, the higher the price, and therefore the cost of using it also goes up.
In your fuel scenario, joyriding would stop first, then people would carpool, then unessential trips would stop, then unessential work, then less essential work, and so on. Everything has a cost.
B with respect as I work at a food bank and notice how many working poor folks are already living in cars or couch surfing there isn't a lot of "joy riding " going on.
DeleteI agree folks that can afford to stock up filters and oil as well as food should be prudent.
But economic hardship generates social discord and I pointed that out.
Michael the anonymous
I rub elbows with working-poor 30 year olds and the parents of those working-poor.
DeleteWhat is it about that generation's obsession with tattoos and cosmetic surgery? A kid with "fresh ink" crying that he is going to miss a car payment or that he cannot afford to get his car fixed. Oh, and he smells like weed.
Not every one of them...but more than half.
Folks that will not work I don't worry about. Most welfare rats I know sound a lot like your ink and weed crew.
DeleteI don't understand body ink myself but remember when I was in my 20's and 30's I wasn't exactly a paragon of Economic Efficiency.
But I've been lucky or hard working enough to not be homeless since I left my father's home at 17.
My last time I paid interest on a credit card I was about 26 IIRC.
IIRC a lot of folks back when I was 20-30 years old were crying about inability to make car payments and getting their cars fixed while puffing pack after pack of cigarettes and drinking a lot of beer.
I was blessed that I was simply allergic to nicotine so never started that habit, but it was hard on my dating scene as girls often smoked.
So, while some are self-defeating inked-weed youngsters I must suggest more than a few are trying hard to do right.
I employed those folks, they still did the weed and the tats.
Delete"Hey, can I get my check early? I gotta pay rent".....and check out my new tat!
Michael: If you think it is not the poor working folks that make the bad economic decisions, you need to get out more.
Anonymous 10:26
Deleteyou miss the point: many folks DO go joyriding, folks who are better off than the folks at your food bank...most of whom are there because of bad decision making and worse lifestyle choices.
"Economic hardship" happens when there is no surplus for the folks who make bad decisions and have no valuable skills, who then make even poorer choices...mostly because they have little forward thinking ability, which is why they are in the situation they are in.
Sad, but there it is.
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DeleteTime will tell B if mine and your economic decisions are good enough to do well (a relative term, eh?) in the troubles coming as decades of spendthrift spending, currency debasement and politics that have us divided and it seems mostly angry at each other.
DeleteIf perchance you have good news that could help readers of this blog, make better economic decisions as to do better, I for one would gladly read them.
Folks with nothing to lose are dangerous.
Suppressing the system did nothing to the root cause.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cato.org/commentary/remembering-nixons-wage-price-controls
Another potential outcome (unanticipated of course) of price controls is that things that could be available are not, simply because folks know they can get more money for them on the black market.
ReplyDeleteHopefully we don't have to go back to eating "Hoover Hogs" again, although they are said to taste close to Pork.
ReplyDeleteLOL I had to look up Hoover Hogs and am laughing because I just roasted a young groundhog I shot in my garden.
DeleteReally tasty next to some roasted root veggies and potato.
I'm ahead of the wave as I already eat Hoover Hogs
I've been wondering lately if wood chucks are tasty or not. I have a good supply of them here on the St. Joe River area.
DeleteThe Frenchies and Poles in my old 'hood' subsisted on "rat dinners" for the years of the Great Depression. Muskrat dinners can be quite tasty and one Polish boy in my neighborhood fought the bureaucrats at MDARD for years over the right to host occasional, public rat dinners through the 1980's. He finally got relief from the Legislature and they no longer had to be held underground.
DeleteWoodchuck can be treated as a beef chuck or rump roast. Cook low, slow and moist. Makes great gravy.
DeleteWC is just a magnum sized squirrel.