[i]Imprimis[/i]: The Dangers of Price Controls

*The First Issue of Imprimis—Updated for Today*
Editor’s Note:
The first issue of Imprimis, published in May 1972, featured an article titled “The Dangers of Price Controls” by Henry Hazlitt. The Federal Reserve back then was printing large amounts of money to fund massive government spending on Great Society programs launched during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson. As a result of printing so much money, the U.S. economy was suffering from rapid inflation. To address inflation, Federal Reserve Chair Arthur Burns and the Nixon administration dreamed up wage and price controls.

~snip~

The first thing to be said about price and wage fixing is that it is harmful at any time and under any conditions. It is a giant step toward a dictated, regimented, and authoritarian economy. It makes impossible arrangements that both sides are willing to agree to. It sets aside contracts that have already been made in good faith. If an employer wishes to give a man a raise in pay, and the man deserves it, he is nonetheless forbidden to do it under the new regulations. This is a grave abridgment of individual liberty.

Read the rest of this most informative article here:
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/the-dangers-of-price-controls/?utm_campaign=imprimis&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8VOKgXtQLJayWVNRj-x8t1Ivq7pEDIeilKfUoyWptPTrTM02Kef3gxC9fFuvK5aZFaSo-zS7Mn_RJaYpixAWLp39QWZg&_hsmi=329076419&utm_content=329076419&utm_source=hs_email

The main point being, the rules of Supply & Demand economics do not change over time, and it is folly to fiddle with it.  


***As an aside; what a treat to have Imprimis' First Edition, right there at your fingertips.  <so to speak>

LATE EDIT: Where'd @izeltv go? This article was posted mostly for his benefit.

You aren't gonna persuade the Demozombies.

If the Wisest Whore In the Western World, the Vice Giggler, says Price Controls are the Intelligent Thing To Do...then, it must be so.

And Trump is Literally Hitler for not agreeing.

Casey Jones wrote:You aren't gonna persuade the Demozombies.

If the Wisest Whore In the Western World, the Vice Giggler, says Price Controls are the Intelligent Thing To Do...then, it must be so.

And Trump is Literally Hitler for not agreeing.

I'll admit that I was holding out a wee bit of hope that someone would recognize that, what was true about the economy in 1972, is just as true today, in 2024.

Either way, the article is impressive, as Imprimis usually is. It'd be a shame for anyone to pass up.

2cent wrote:

Casey Jones wrote:You aren't gonna persuade the Demozombies.

If the Wisest Whore In the Western World, the Vice Giggler, says Price Controls are the Intelligent Thing To Do...then, it must be so.

And Trump is Literally Hitler for not agreeing.

I'll admit that I was holding out a wee bit of hope that someone would recognize that, what was true about the economy in 1972, is just as true today, in 2024.

Either way, the article is impressive, as Imprimis usually is.  It'd be a shame for anyone to pass up.

True enough...Nixon's Wage-and-Price freezes back then are most-assuredly on my mind - as the lesson that should have been learned but was not.

And how quickly things can go off the rails. Maybe you also remember, how quickly Nixon reversed them. And this after...what, a month?...with essentially NOTHING in the meat cases; various popular commodities sold out and not restocked.

I always figured Nixon did it as a way to shut up the Government Class in Washington - the newspaper writers, the think tankers, the television pundits - who never saw a Five-Year Plan they didn't love.

This time, though, we're a whole lot stupider. And our (purported) leaders even moar so. And the people THEY take counsel from...are Malthusians who LUUV....DEAD DEPLORABLES

I should bounce over there. Imprimus is, I guess, a university publication of good repute; but I don't need a professor to convince me that Price Controls are a fool's game.

Casey Jones wrote:

2cent wrote:

Casey Jones wrote:You aren't gonna persuade the Demozombies.

If the Wisest Whore In the Western World, the Vice Giggler, says Price Controls are the Intelligent Thing To Do...then, it must be so.

And Trump is Literally Hitler for not agreeing.

I'll admit that I was holding out a wee bit of hope that someone would recognize that, what was true about the economy in 1972, is just as true today, in 2024.

Either way, the article is impressive, as Imprimis usually is.  It'd be a shame for anyone to pass up.

True enough...Nixon's Wage-and-Price freezes back then are most-assuredly on my mind - as the lesson that should have been learned but was not.

And how quickly things can go off the rails.  Maybe you also remember, how quickly Nixon reversed them.  And this after...what, a month?...with essentially NOTHING in the meat cases; various popular commodities sold out and not restocked.

I always figured Nixon did it as a way to shut up the Government Class in Washington - the newspaper writers, the think tankers, the television pundits - who never saw a Five-Year Plan they didn't love.

This time, though, we're a whole lot stupider.  And our (purported) leaders even moar so.  And the people THEY take counsel from...are Malthusians who LUUV....DEAD DEPLORABLES

I should bounce over there.  Imprimus is, I guess, a university publication of good repute; but I don't need a professor to convince me that Price Controls are a fool's game.

Actually, the price/wage freeze lasted 90 days, and then there was another, "Phase II". added to that. But yes, all the while that admin was doing everything in its power to cover over one of their more famous fubars.

But, yes, Imprimis is the bi-monthly publication put out by Hillsdale College. One of the VERY few colleges that refuse any support whatsoever from the government. Therefore, they can run their college in the way that they deem fit for college-age students.