HOLMAN W. JENKINS, JR. of the Wall Street Journal channels David M. Brown at Mises Daily:
“The public doesn’t want to hear it, but the public also doesn’t like empty shelves.”
Sounding like Bastiat, Jenkins concludes, “Crackdowns on gouging are plausible only because the advantages of not prosecuting price gougers belong to the category of the unseen—the public can’t see the supplies that would be available but for price-gouging laws. A good statewide New Jersey gasoline panic might correct that myopia, at least for a while.”