Ep. 92 - The Truth About Price Gouging

As I record this episode in late March 2020, the world is living through the Coronavirus crisis. Recently my wife and I were discussing the toilet paper shortage. I explained that the reason there isn't any toilet paper now is because the stores did not raise the price when they saw a surge in demand. She argued that price gouging during a crisis is wrong and immoral. I tried to explain why it is actually a good thing. Full disclosure: She was not convinced. Hopefully you will be after listening. We discuss some basic economic concepts like: What is a price and how do they fluctuate. Then we dive into the topic at hand - price gouging. This is followed by an examination of pandering politicians and price controls and the morality of price gouging. We wrap up the episode discussing the benefits of price gouging and whether or not these arguments hold up when a crisis is regional versus worldwide. Show Notes Bob Murphy - Hurricane Sandy and Gas Lines John Stossel - Price Gouging Walter E. Williams – Hillsdale College Speech One or Two Cheers for Price Gougers; Three Cheers for Markets and No Cheers for Anti-Gouging Laws Price Gouging Laws will do More Harm than Good During the Coronavirus Pandemic A Primer on Price Gouging Tom Woods Episode #987 - Price Gouging is Urgently Necessary Words & Numbers Podcast - Price-Gouging Bans Don't Make Things Cheaper, They Make Them More Scarce. Basic Economics, Thomas Sowell Mises.org Anti-gouging Laws are the Reason There is a Toilet Paper Shortage 3 Good Things about “Price Gouging Price Gouging: A Life-Saving Market Mechanism FEE.org Greedy Capitalists Take Advantage of People in Natural Disasters Texas Price Gougers are Hurricane Heroes The Truth Quest Podcast Patron Page Join the conversation at The Truth Quest Facebook Fan Page Order a copy of Shawn's books, Pritical Thinking, The Proverbs Project, The Termite Effect. The video of this episode is available on Rumble, BitChute, Brighteon and Thinkspot. Check out short highlight videos of each episode on Instagram.