Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo
Rising gasoline prices at a Chevron station in downtown Los Angeles, February 18, 2022
As the debate goes on about how much inflation is due to (a) excess demand, (b) supply chain shocks, (c) the war, or (d) opportunistic corporate price-gouging, the political fact is that inflation is ravaging President Biden’s popularity. While discouraging the Fed from worsening matters by overdoing interest rate hikes can help, the administration needs to be more proactive on other fronts.
Reshoring sources of supply is a promising policy, but it will take time. Likewise offsetting consumer price increases by putting more money in people’s pockets, by supporting policies like the expanded Child Tax Credit and affordable child care and pre-K. But this runs into Joe Manchin.
One promising area is price controls, which worked well in World War II, but not so well in the 1970s, when they were half-baked and badly executed. Explicit controls on prices also require legislation. But a variation of price controls that can be done by executive action is a severe crackdown on corporate price-gouging.
Corporations, and not just oil companies, are making record profits. The psychology is obvious. Consumers now expect rising prices, so why not tack on a little extra beyond the corporation’s own increased costs of inputs.
In November, Biden made a good start by directing the Federal Trade Commission to look into price-gouging by oil and gas companies. But he could go further.
A good model is a bill introduced by Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, the COVID-19 Price Gouging Prevention Act. The bill provides that “it shall be unlawful for any person to sell or offer for sale a good or service at a price that is unconscionably excessive; and indicates the seller is using the circumstances … to increase prices unreasonably.”
The bill goes on to direct the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the price reasonably reflects “additional costs, not within the control of” the seller, or whether it reflects opportunistic price-gouging.
Since much price-gouging is the result of monopoly pricing power that undermines the ability of consumers to keep sellers honest by shopping around, there is a good case that the FTC already has the power to carry out such investigations and impose penalties under existing law. The FTC’s prime mission is to protect consumers by resisting monopolies.
There is substantial evidence that the oil companies are taking advantage of inflationary circumstances to gouge consumers, but it doesn’t stop with them. A few high-profile cases would remind consumers (and voters) that a good part of today’s inflation reflects corporate abuses. It would also remind voters whose side the administration is on.
