NPR.

This is the Indicator from Planet Money.

I'm Paddy Hirsch.

And I'm Whalen Wong.

After more than two years of pandemic, a supply chain crisis and a war in Europe, supply

shocks have become commonplace in the global economy.

With those supply shocks, of course, come shortages and rising prices.

More often than not, outrage accusations of price-guidging.

Price-gouging.

When someone takes advantage of a shortage of supply to jack-up prices to unfair levels,

we've been hearing a lot about price-gouging lately, as the cost of everything from

eggs to gasoline has been going up.

In the case of those two commodities in particular, prices have been going up so much and making

consumers hile with so much pain that legislators have been getting involved.

Families across the country are struggling to keep up with rising gas prices.

That's Democratic Representative Katie Pozier of California.

In Orange County, California, the price of gas is nearly $6 a gallon.

And the price has gone up $2 a gallon in just one year.

These corporations are making record profits.

The high-end.

California's Governor Gavin Newsom has called for a price-gouging penalty to be imposed

on oil companies.

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