I'm Caroline Brown. Happy New You, everybody.

This is the Kator Daily Podcast for Wednesday, January 5, 2022.

I'm Caleb Brown.

It happens every time a disaster strikes a second, usually smaller disaster in the form of anti-price gouging action by law enforcement.

That's when the state targets people for bringing vital supplies to those who need them at a higher than

normal price. Cato's Ryan Bourne comments. With COVID for the past two years

most recently as people know who listen to this podcast regularly I am from Kentucky and in the wake

of tornadoes in Kentucky with the awful devastation that has has come with that we see the

invoking of price gouging typically by

lawmakers in the case of Kentucky the top law enforcement officer in

Kentucky the attorney general saying hey we're on the lookout. We are actively looking for price gougers wherever

they may crop up. And for the most part, it seems like the people who are alleging that gouging is one a problem.

And it is certainly it is a problem for people who are without resources trying to buy something but it's also the kind of thing that for

lawmakers for law enforcement I don't want to see it.

Yeah so price gouging as a kind of accusation at firms basically implies that when

disasters like this hit companies kind of get greedy and charge consumers extortionate sums for

their goods and services and we kind of seem to forget everything we know about where prices come from once emergencies

hit.

So in normal times we recognize that prices are broadly determined by supply and demand in most markets. Then when the price of something

rises dramatically in a crisis sometimes because goods aren't able to be delivered, so there's far less supply in the area, or

there's a massive expansion in demand, so because people are stuck at home in the pandemic,

people wanted face masks and hand sanitizer and the like, you get a big increase in the price.

...