Closing tabbies for the weekend ...

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On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Chris Jansing Reports,” Harris-Walz Campaign Senior Economic Adviser Gene Sperling responded to a question on how 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris plans to define “price gouging” by stating that “we’re not trying to do every detail.”

Host Katy Tur asked, “I want to go back to price gouging at the grocery store. Can you tell me how VP Harris will define price gouging?”

Sperling responded, “Well, we’re not trying to do every detail." 

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Ed: Maybe there isn't as much media joy as I suspected?

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The energy crisis of the 1970s ended when Ronald Reagan, on the first day of his presidency, lifted all oil and gas price controls, which had only benefited the Saudis and killed domestic production. It was a teachable moment for the country. 

I used to teach a course in economics to college freshmen. If they had written on their final exam that price controls were the solution to inflation, they would have failed the course.

Congratulations, Kamala Harris: you get an F in economics. 

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But the embrace of price controls as a way of addressing inflation — which has now come down to under 3%, near the Fed's target — comes with risks, even as food prices remain 21% higher than they were three years ago.

The campaign claims that many large grocery chains have kept prices high despite stable production costs, leading to their highest profits in 20 years. That fails to take into account that grocery stores tend to have razor-thin profit margins, typically between 1-3%, far lower than other retail sectors.

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"But look, when it comes to the 25k, I mean, you just added $25,000 to the price of every home price in the country, because if you're giving that away, essentially for free, people will add it into the price."

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But as Harris rapidly settles into her role as the Democratic nominee, she and her campaign are embracing “Kamala.” After three years of struggling to reset her image in Washington, it’s part of a strategy to highlight her long political resume — including her work as vice president — but also as “Kamala” to voters and constituents, a wife to “Dougie,” “Momala” to her two stepkids, an auntie and the Democrat who is suddenly resonating online with videos of her dancing, coconut and brat memes.

“I think she has a 98 percent name ID rate in this country now. Whether they pronounce it wrong or pronounce it right, everyone has to say Kamala. It’s amazing, little girls with big names,” said Lateefah Simon, who worked with Harris at the San Francisco district attorney’s office. “She’s not hiding her ethnicity. She’s not hiding who she is. She was first a public servant.”

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Ed: Hey, if you're digging the Final Word and want to get into the conversation in the comments, sign up to become VIP and VIP Gold members! Become a HotAir VIP member today and use promo code COMMIEWALZ to receive a 50% discount on your membership.

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Ed: I'll cut Walz some slack on this, because all Mexican food in Minnesota is essentially Norwegian. I spent 23 years in that Mexican food desert, and three years in Texas hasn't been enough to catch up. Beyond that, though, I never heard the term "white guy tacos" in my 23 years there, even though it might be descriptively accurate. That sounds like a little shout-out to the CRT-drenched elite to say, "I'm one of you!"

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When I signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, we beat Big Pharma, made the largest climate investment in history, and lowered energy and health care costs.

It fell entirely to Democrats to deliver it—with @KamalaHarris casting the tie-breaking vote. pic.twitter.com/O3ehkb9O3i

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 16, 2024

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Today marks the second anniversary of President Biden’s signing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law. Two years after its signing, we are learning that the IRA could cost multiple times more than initial estimates. To many in Congress, that is still not nearly enough—some lawmakers frame the massive spending in the IRA as just a down payment toward a Green New Deal. ...

In a forthcoming policy analysis, we estimate that the IRA will cost more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years and between $2 trillion and $4 trillion by 2050. The final tally of energy subsidies enabled by the IRA is difficult to predict because many energy-related tax credits are uncapped and depend on uncertain deployment levels and consumer choices yet to be made (such as electric vehicle purchases).

Kamala Harris—current vice president and Democratic nominee for president—was the tie-breaking vote on the IRA and a cosponsor of Markey’s Green New Deal resolution. In recent days, her aides claimed she still supports the IRA, with one of her campaign representatives saying, “As president, Kamala Harris will finish implementing the IRA.”

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This is damn meaningless gibberish. pic.twitter.com/IKhQqt1ri7

— 🍹 Princess Consuela Banana-Hammock (@kimmie_c_) August 15, 2024

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“If prices are rising on average over time and profit margins expand, that might look like price gouging, but it’s actually indicative of a broad increase in demand,” said Joshua Hendrickson, an economist at the University of Mississippi who has written skeptically of claims that corporate behavior is driving prices higher. “Such broad increases tend to be the result of expansionary monetary or fiscal policy — or both.”

As hot demand collided with diminished supply, the economy operated more or less as one would expect, several economists said. Without enough goods to meet strong demand, companies began to charge as much as they could for what they did have to sell. Higher prices then prodded companies to produce more, which helped supply to recover and inflation to cool again.

“Egg prices went up last year — it’s because there weren’t as many eggs, and it caused more egg production,” said Jason Furman, a Harvard economist formerly in the Obama administration.

Ed: This is Econ 101. The demand spike came from loose monetary policy -- incredibly loose thanks to the Biden-Harris 'American Rescue Plan" of March 2021 -- which also coincided with a comprehensive supply-chain crisis. Biden and Harris deliberately spiked demand by sending an avalanche of stimulus money that was unnecessary, despite being warned of the inflationary risks. Too much demand, not enough supply = inflation. Fortunately, the incentives from higher prices resulted in increased production, but it took a long time to catch up.  

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