Meet Andrew Ferguson, an Elizabeth Warren sound alike.
Andrew Ferguson on Price Fixing
Ferguson: As we adjust to the new economic order, the FTC will be watching closely to make sure American companies are vigorously competing on prices. These necessary tariffs should not be interpreted as a green light for price fixing or any other unlawful behavior. We will always protect American consumers.
Elizabeth Warren on Price Fixing
Warren: United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to Chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan, on reports of widespread price gouging in states impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton and on the need for a federal price gouging ban to complement state-level efforts.
Accurate Replies to Ferguson
David Badash: “As we adjust to the new economic order” is peak dystopian doublespeak. Tariffs as patriotic sacrifice, competition as control, all wrapped in corporate loyalty language. Nothing says “America First” like authoritarian economics.
Vance Ginn: The invisible hand is always a better determinate of market prices than politicians or bureaucrats. Government failures of tariffs, subsidies, regulatory capture, etc. are always worse than any perceived market failure. Why not end the FTC? Too much govt interference already.
Michael Hussey: Never go full Bernie!
Baxter Bean and SunnyRight: It can’t be long before conservatives are screaming that consumer price increases are the result of greedy CEOs, ratherr than the predictable result of tariff policies.
SunnyRight: Decades of Democrats who shouted that raising your taxes was patriotic, and were crushed over it, must be absolutely ecstatic that MAGA has now embraced the policy
Juha Remes: So, state-mandated price controls? How very Soviet. You do know what the alternative to high prices caused by self-inflicted economic damage is? It’s shortages. Then your shops start looking like this Venezuelan supermarket.
Why Bother Replacing Kahn?
Please consider the October 4, 2024 post FTC chair says agency is taking aim at inflation caused by bad business behavior
As consumers continue to face higher prices for groceries and other goods, the Federal Trade Commission is looking at whether some of those price hikes are driven by profiteering.
The agency is “using all of our tools to make sure that no American is paying more because of illegal business practices, be it at the grocery store, be it at the pump, be it at the pharmacy, on food and groceries in particular,” FTC Chair Lina Khan told reporters Thursday during a visit to Wisconsin.
State price-gouging laws are intended to address momentary surges in the price of goods that take advantage of circumstances such as natural disasters. But the FTC focuses on “a broader set of corporate practices that we think may be unlawfully hiking up prices,” Khan said.
Did You Vote for This?
Amusingly, if you voted for either Trump or Harris, the answer is “Yes”.
My conscience is clear. I wrote in Mish.
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