The Dangers of Price Controls

Imprimis   

"Of course, if we are in a period of inflation, price fixing does immensely more harm. It is never a cure for inflation. Rather it is an attempt to direct the blame away from government. What causes inflation is an increase in the supply of money and credit. This is often brought on, directly or indirectly, by government policies—especially when the Federal Reserve decides to print new money to fuel government deficits."

Thomas Nast 1873

"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.

"Today we face a similar situation. The Federal Reserve has been printing a lot of money to fund the huge expansion in the size and scope of government that took place during and after the Covid pandemic. In response to the resulting inflation and the political unrest that comes with it, Vice President Harris and others are promising to outlaw “price gouging”—in other words, to impose price controls—which will eventually lead to wage controls as well, since production and prices involve both in an intimate way.

"Because economic truth remains the same today as it was 52 years ago, we are reprinting Henry Hazlitt’s article from 1972, but with edits and updates by Brian Wesbury that bring Hazlitt’s classic piece into today’s world.

"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.

"Price and wage fixing does harm even if there is no inflation. In a free economy prices are constantly changing. They are changing to reflect changes in supply and demand, in costs, and in a hundred other conditions. Some prices are going up, other prices are going down. If an effort is made to freeze prices and wages exactly where they are, it immediately disturbs the relationship of prices and comparative profit margins, which decides what things will be made and what quantities they will be made in. It upsets the process by which the free market decides how thousands of different commodities and services are to be made in the proportions in which people want them.

"Of course, if we are in a period of inflation, price fixing does immensely more harm. It is never a cure for inflation. Rather it is an attempt to direct the blame away from government. What causes inflation is an increase in the supply of money and credit. This is often brought on, directly or indirectly, by government policies—especially when the Federal Reserve decides to print new money to fuel government deficits.

"Since the onset of Covid, government deficits have soared to spectacular levels. Roughly $5 trillion of new debt was issued to pay people not to work and to buy vaccines, as well as to fund Green New Deal policies. The massive spending bills that accomplished this were cynically called the “CARES Act” and, comically, the “Inflation Reduction Act.” Even in the past two years, with the pandemic over and the unemployment rate down near four percent, the government—in adopting what may be the most irresponsible budgets in U.S. history—has been running deficits as high as $2 trillion.

"These deficits have mostly been financed by the Fed’s creation of new money. At the end of 2019, demand bank deposits and currency in the hands of the public totaled $15.3 trillion. Today that figure is $21.1 trillion. That is an increase of 38 percent, most of which occurred in 2020–2021. This is the major cause of the worst U.S. inflation in over 40 years, with consumer prices up 22 percent." . . .

London in The Blitz, WW2

London in The Blitz, WW2 - Fascinating THEN & NOW Photographs

No Tesla or victim love in Minneapolis

 Mike McDaniel  

"Among the worst burdens of any police officer’s job is dealing with non-prosecuting prosecutors. The common, pre-Soros variety were bad enough, but Soros prosecutors blatantly refuse to prosecute most criminals and are prone to throwing the book at non-Democrats." . . . 

"That Democrats have long enjoyed a two-tiered system of injustice is well established. The law applies to Normal Americans, not the self-imagined elite who may break it with impunity. That’s particularly true in Minnesota, playground of Governor Tim “Tampon” Walz and Hennepin County—Minneapolis—Prosecutor Mary Moriarty, very much a Soros prosecutor.

"Moriarty has a horrible record of ignoring victims and coddling criminals. She dropped the case of a 35-year-old man who allegedly raped a 14-year-old girl. She gave probation to a drug dealer who knowingly killed a man with a fatal Fentanyl dose. She was so lenient to two hitmen even Tim Walz had her booted from the case. 

"And now one Dylan Adams, a 33-year-old state government employee who allegedly keyed six separate Teslas, causing at least $20,000 in damage, won’t face the felony charges he deserves. I say “alleged” because Teslas have 360° cameras, all of which caught Adams in the act. Instead, he’ll be given a “diversion” program.

"Such programs are normally reserved for first time offenders who made a single, foolish mistake, people who really aren’t career criminals. Usually in exchange for restitution, and perhaps some community service, they get off without any criminal record. In this case, Adams vandalized six widely separated Teslas in a premediated series of felonies. One wasn’t enough for Adams; he had to make a bigger political statement. Moriarty’s office noted:  

"Our main priorities are to secure restitution for the victims and hold Mr. Adams accountable. As a result, we will file for pre-charge diversion to best facilitate both of those goals," HCAO spokesperson Daniel Borgertpoepping said. "This is an approach taken in many property crime cases and helps to ensure the individual keeps their job and can pay restitution, as well as reducing the likelihood of repeat offenses. Criminal prosecution remains a possibility should unlawful behavior continue."

‘Reminiscent of the KKK’: Columbia Janitors Sue Protesters Who Took Over Hamilton Hall

 The Free Press  

"The professors and students in the UCLA case are suing under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, alleging that these anti-Israel groups "plotted, coordinated, and executed a common plan to deprive Plaintiffs and other Jews at UCLA of their rights” and to “subject Plaintiffs to racial intimidation and violence and to stir up race hatred at UCLA.”

Mario Torres confronts demonstrators attempting to barricade themselves inside Hamilton Hall 

"The Columbia University janitors who were held hostage during the violent takeover of a campus building last spring are suing their alleged captors for battery, assault, and conspiracy to violate their civil rights, according to a copy of the suit reviewed exclusively by The Free Press.

"The lawsuit was filed in federal court on Friday evening by Torridon Law and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law on behalf of Columbia janitors Mario Torres and Lester Wilson. It alleges that over 40 Columbia students and “outside agitators,” some but not all of whom were arrested by police following the takeover of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall last April 29, “terrorized” both Torres and Wilson “into the early morning of April 30th, assaulted and battered them, held them against their will, and derided them as ‘Jew-lovers’ and ‘Zionists.’ ”

"The occupation of Hamilton Hall occurred almost exactly a year ago, and both Torres and Lester say they have been struggling to cope ever since. The lawsuit states both men suffered physical injuries the night of the occupation, and that they have also been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder that has required ongoing medical care. Neither has been able to return to work, and are instead “subsisting on interim Workers Compensation payments” which are “inadequate” to pay for their basic needs and medical bills, according to the suit.

“Mario and Lester are decent, honest, hardworking men who have been through hell. None of this ever should have happened,” said Tara Helfman, one of the Torridon lawyers on the case.

"The lawsuit describes the protesters, the majority of whom “donned masks and hoods to conceal their identities,” as “reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan.” It claims they “are part of a broad pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic network of organizations, groups, and cells that are connected through a largely untraceable underground communications system. They promote and resort to violent and illegal tactics, and are motivated by invidious discrimination against Jews and supporters of Jews.”

"The Brandeis Center also filed a federal lawsuit late Friday on behalf of two students, a professor, and a rabbi at the University of California, Los Angeles, alleging that several groups, including National Students for Justice in Palestine, Faculty for Justice in Palestine Network, American Muslims for Palestine, and Westchester People’s Action Coalition, engaged in “a coordinated campaign of egregious acts of racial exclusion, intimidation, and assault” to “intimidate Jewish students, faculty, and staff.” . . .

"The “occupiers” named in Torres and Wilson’s lawsuit include leaders of Columbia’s most vocal anti-Israel groups like the Columbia University Apartheid Divest Coalition, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace. Other defendants are people not associated with the university who were allegedly involved in the building takeover, including James Carlson, described in a New York Post story as a “longtime anarchist” and as the son of millionaires, and Lisa Fithian, a professional protest trainer and “lifelong agitator.” Also named in the suit is The People’s Forum, a far-left activist group responsible for organizing many of the anti-Israel protests at Columbia and across New York City.

"Over 40 protesters, including Carlson, were arrested and charged with trespassing in the days after the Hamilton Hall occupation. But Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s office dropped the charges, claiming the charges would have been “extremely difficult” to prove because the protesters wore masks and covered security cameras." . . .

Frannie Block is a reporter for The Free Press. She started her career as a breaking-news journalist for the Des Moines Register, where she covered topics ranging from crime and public safety to food insecurity and the Iowa caucus.

Black Chicagoan Torches Democrats: They Live in Gated Communities While Demanding We Take In Illegal Aliens

 

 

"In her written testimony, Carter-Walters accused Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) of catering to the more than 51,000 illegal aliens who arrived in the city under former President Joe Biden."  John Binder

Black Chicagoan Torches Democrats: They Live in Gated Communities While Demanding We Take In Illegal Aliens   "Danielle Carter-Walters, a black resident of Chicago, Illinois, torched Democrats during a congressional hearing on Wednesday, accusing them of advocating for public policies that they, themselves, never have to live with.

"At the House Judiciary’s Immigration Subcommittee hearing on sanctuary jurisdictions, Carter-Walters laid into Democrats for supporting illegal immigration despite not having to deal with the consequences of such a policy in their day-to-day lives.

“ 'I say, ‘Call me a racist,'” Carter-Walters said. “I don’t want anybody who crossed over here illegally, unvetted. I don’t want them in my community, so you can call me racist.”

“ 'Because let me tell you, the Democrat Party is so far from reality,” she continued. “They go in their gated communities. I don’t see any of those people that are advocating to keep these people here. I don’t see them in their house, in their communities. They don’t have them around their children or their husbands. But yet and still they are advocating for us to allow this in our communities around our kids and our families.”

“To the vocal Democrat Black representatives — cease and desist,” the Chicagoan said. “You do not speak for us.” . . .

UPDATED: Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre dies by suicide at 41 just weeks after saying she ‘had days to live’

 NY Post    "Virginia Giuffre, the most prominent victim of late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, took her own life Thursday — just weeks after she made headlines for saying she had “four days to live” following a collision with a bus

“It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia,” the 41-year-old’s family said in a statement to NBC News.

“She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.”

6

Virginia Giuffre was one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most outspoken abuse survivors.

"Giuffre took legal action against billionaire financier Epstein in 2015, alleging that she was sex trafficked at 16 after his ex-lover and convicted madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, recruited her from her job as a locker room attendant at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

"The mom of three also alleged she was forced to have sex with disgraced Prince Andrew three times when she was 17 — including at Epstein’s Little St. James island, in New Mexico and in Maxwell’s London home, where a notorious photo of her posing with King Charles’ brother was taken." . . .

"UPDATE: Trump later banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago after reports surfaced that Epstein had approached underage girls at the club. Trump later banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago after reports surfaced that Epstein had approached underage girls at the club."  "The  View" will likely leave this last part out. TD

Giuffre also alleged that she saw former President Bill Clinton on Epstein’s private island, though Clinton has denied visiting the property.

Giuffre also alleged that she saw former President Bill Clinton on Epstein’s private island, though Clinton has denied visiting the property.

The mom of three also alleged she was forced to have sex with disgraced Prince Andrew three times when she was 17 — including at Epstein’s Little St. James island, in New Mexico and in Maxwell’s London home, where a notorious photo of her posing with King Charles’ brother was taken.

UK Daily Mail:  Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre dies by suicide after troubling Instagram posts   . . ."Giuffre said Maxwell hired her as a masseuse for Epstein, but the couple effectively made her a sexual servant, pressuring her into gratifying not only Epstein but his friends and associates."

Giuffre said she was flown around the world for assignations with men including Prince Andrew while she was 17 and 18.

The Duke of York denied the allegation, as has Maxwell - who is a convicted sex offender - while Epstein died in a New York prison in 2019.

She filed a federal lawsuit against Andrew in 2021 which he agreed to settle for an undisclosed fee in 2022. He has denied ever having sex with her. 

She had alleged she had sex with Andrew three times,  in London during a 2001 trip, at Epstein's New York mansion when she was 17 and in the Virgin Islands when she was 18. 

Giuffre said she was flown around the world for assignations with men including Prince Andrew while she was 17 and 18.

The Duke of York denied the allegation, as has Maxwell - who is a convicted sex offender - while Epstein died in a New York prison in 2019.

She filed a federal lawsuit against Andrew in 2021 which he agreed to settle for an undisclosed fee in 2022. He has denied ever having sex with her. 

She had alleged she had sex with Andrew three times,  in London during a 2001 trip, at Epstein's New York mansion when she was 17 and in the Virgin Islands when she was 18. 

UPDATED 4/26/2025: A Message to Larry David: Curb Your Derangement

 American Spectator  

"And this brings us to the painful, all-too-obvious irony. Larry David, the man who once gave us the Soup Nazi, an emblem of absurd authoritarianism taken to extremes, now pens op-eds warning that Donald Trump is quite literally Hitler" 

Ekoed on DeviantArt

"Larry David is a legend. The irritable neurotic behind Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm turned petulance into a form of performance art. He gave awkward silence a pulse. His misanthropy is somehow warm. His genius lies in the discomfort. But in his latest op-ed for the New York Times, titled “My Dinner With Adolf,” David overreaches. Way over.

"The piece, a satirical riff on Bill Maher’s recent dinner with President Trump, imagines a Jewish critic having a charming, disarming meal with Adolf Hitler. The tone is classic David — deadpan, absurd, snarky. But the comparison isn’t just distasteful. It’s entirely self-defeating. By invoking Hitler, David attempted to sharpen the critique. He failed. (RELATED: Enough with Leftist Fantasy — Hitler Is Really Dead, and He Should Finally Be Buried)

"The Holocaust isn’t a metaphor. Hitler isn’t a meme. Six million dead Jews, plus millions more murdered across Europe, aren’t props for a punchline. Yet, in David’s hands, they become set dressing for a sketch about Trump’s charm offensive.

"The point he’s trying to make is that private likability doesn’t absolve public harm. It’s a fair point. However, once you start goose-stepping around the Holocaust to make it, the moral high ground crumbles immediately.

"And here, I suggest, is the deeper problem: the invocation of Hitler always backfires. It transforms conversation into emotionally charged theater. It eliminates nuance. It hands your critics a gift-wrapped reason to dismiss everything else you say. Even the Times, in its own editorial note, felt compelled to clarify that David wasn’t really comparing Trump to Hitler. When your satire needs a trigger warning from the editorial board, maybe, just maybe, it missed the mark.

"Like many in Hollywood, David is furious, absolutely furious that someone they once considered “one of them” (Bill Maher) could sit down with Trump and come away seeing a man instead of a monster. And Maher didn’t just sit down. He publicly praised Trump’s demeanor. That triggered a kind of cultural autoimmune response, a reflexive, self-sabotaging lashing out designed less to engage than to punish. Read more...

(RELATED: The Left Should Learn From Bill Maher)

UPDATE: Larry David: No Longer the Master of his Comedic Domain  . . ."But today, that free spirit has been crushed, and David has become a propagandist for the Democrats.

"Larry's net worth is said to be over $400 million, so he isn't doing this to put food on his table. 

"David's parody pieces targeting Trump are disappointing on many levels. Firstly, they are lame and uninventive. Trump has been compared to Hitler since the day he descended the elevator at Trump Tower to launch his campaign for President. On MSNBC, pundits are sacked if they don't compare Trump to Hitler at least once a week. The comparison was hence neither provocative nor original. 

"The piece was predictable, devoid of any depth or insight, and, surprisingly for David, lacked humor of both dark and light varieties. This is the kind of shallow writing that escapes your mind when you finish the last word. 

"David could have been inventive, focused on the human aspect, and depicted Maher as a George Costanza kind of character groveling before his former adversary for personal gains.

"The insane reaction from David and others to the Maher-Trump dinner once again provides an insight into the Democrat cult." . . .

The Press Is Back In Full Frenzy Mode, But This Time Nobody Is Listening

 Issues & Insights  

"But what else can the mainstream press do? After having predicted the end of democracy and the rise of “fascism” should Trump be elected, or reelected, they have a vested interest in proving themselves right."

"You’d think the mainstream press would have learned a lesson or two after committing so many embarrassing mistakes in its effort to “get” Donald Trump and cover up for Joe Biden over the past eight years. But no. It’s already back to its old and terrible habits.

"Shortly after the election, Vanity Fair published a story that led with this admonition to the press: “Every outrage and insult can’t be a five-alarm fire, as it’s critical for the media to stay focused on the most serious threats to America’s democratic institutions.”

"Former New York Times editor Jill Abramson cautioned her colleagues to “watch and restrain headlines on stories that are needlessly hyperbolic or over-the-top negative.”

"Brian McGory, former Boston Globe editor, said it’s “time to cover his actions and policies, his successes and his failures. To do it through as conventional a lens as possible, while not normalizing mayhem, and a willingness to acknowledge when things go well.”

"But instead of heeding this advice, the mainstream press went right back to its frantic Trump-hating roots.

"News stories assume the absolute worst about Trump. Reporters run with thinly sourced stories to attack him. They freak out about everything he says. Stoke panic at every turn. Endlessly predict doom and gloom. Play up astroturf protests. And studiously ignore whatever successes Trump does achieve. When context is needed, it’s ignored.

"This makes it all but impossible for the average American to know what they can trust, or when there actually is something to be concerned about. When everything is a crisis, nothing is.

"When rogue federal judges started routinely issuing universal injunctions against Trump executive orders, a practice that is legally suspect and was extremely rare until Trump showed up, the story wasn’t how these judges wildly overstepped their bounds, it’s that Trump was creating a “constitutional crisis.' ” . . .

David Hogg Ignites CIVIL WAR In Democrat Party, Senator QUITS, Party In Chaos & Facing COLLAPSE

Whatfinger News   

"I'm trying to figure out where David Hogg actually got $100,000 to donate. How did he get so rich? I know he sold a book that made it to the NY Best Sellers list, but he promised to donate all of that money. He also started a pillow company but resigned from there shortly afterwards. His dad was an FBI agent and his mom was a teacher. Where did all his money come from?"

• Reminder that David Hogg was in a different building on campus during that school sh***ing, and he left school, went home, then came back an hour later to play victim for the cameras
• I bought my first AR15 because of Hogg…. I even named it “The Hogg”
• Conservatives warned democrats not to get in bed with the communists and extremists.
• As a downstate conservative, and a Boomer, getting rid of Durbin can only be a good thing. Now to get rid of Pritzker. Let’s keep Hogg, he is Trump’s secret weapon.
• This is why every Republican and conservative wanted Hogg to win. He will further the demise of the Democrat Party. Such a great thing to see LMAO
• David Hogg is the political equivalent of the Bud Light marketing whiz girl who decided to dump their customer base and go after a new trans market.
• Democrats are basically the defense attorney. Most of what they do annoys me. But if they completely collapse, well, it’s not ideal. I want them to be better, I don’t want them to disappear. Except… I’d take them being replaced by the libertarian party, that might not be so bad. In fact, that might be the best thing that could happen to this country.
• Never get in the way of your enemy making a mistake. Let him talk along with AOC. Loving every minute of it. He will end up a marked man.
• This morning my wife(Hispanic) was talking about the”Maryland man” in reference to her sister being afraid of getting deported despite being born in the US and her family being American citizens for several generations. I pushed back and told her I still had his court documents on my pc from when I was looking into the story of she’d like to see them so she can be informed on the facts. She just dismissed it and said I wasn’t afraid because I’m white.
• How does a little kid get that much money? Was it his inserting himself into a school shooting by riding his bike TO THE SCHOOL? Was it his fbi dad? Where did this money come from.

History’s Biggest Liars?

 Issues & Insights  

When we think of some of the biggest lies in our history – the income tax will be levied only on the richest few, Social Security is a good deal from the New Deal, Stalin’s Soviet Union was a fine place, Joe Biden is in great health, the coronavirus posed an existential threat to billions and wasn’t cooked up in a Chinese lab – where do we rank the climate fearmongering?

"The “experts” who have told us that man-made climate change is a grave threat must have stumbled across the Winston Churchill comment about duplicity, because they know the truth has a hard time catching up to lies. They’ve also relied on lying by omission, an offense that can’t be blamed on innocent oversight.

"One of Churchill’s greatest quips warns us that “a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” Propagandists know this is true.

"Fabulists also lie by leaving out important facts. Such as burying the medieval warm period. Former University of Alabama assistant geological sciences professor Matthew Wielicki explained in a Substack post the day before Earth Day how “the deliberate erasure of past climatic states” is used “to support alarmist conclusions.”

“Every year, new temperature records are breathlessly announced as though the planet is plunging into uncharted climate chaos. Mainstream headlines proclaim things like ‘Humanity just lived through the hottest 12 months in at least 125,000 years’ or ‘This year virtually certain to be warmest in 125,000 years, EU scientists say.’ We’re told, often without context or qualification, that the warming we’re experiencing is unlike anything seen in hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of years.”

"Of course these assertions deserve our suspicion, because “climate authorities, especially the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), built their entire narrative on the selective memory of Earth’s climate past,” says Wielicki, who considers himself an “Earth science professor-in-exile,” which of course is what happens when researchers stray from the climate alarmist narrative." . . .

To win midterms, Democrats must confront 2024 failures

 UnHerd  

"And to “win back the young people” who’ve drifted to the Republicans, they chose David Hogg, an obnoxiously ultra-left young man, as one of their vice chairs. Because if only young lefties knew what party to vote for."  Comment.

"This week, California Governor Gavin Newsom sat for an interview where he chastised Democrats for refusing to explore last year’s loss. Speaking with The Hill, he said: “We have not done a forensic of what just went wrong, period, full stop. I don’t think it — I know it”.

"Many people have called on the party to examine what went wrong and figure out a better path forward. So far, there’s little sign the party plans to do this. And given the frenetic start to Trump’s second term, many Democrats have already pivoted from introspection into resistance mode.

"In lieu of an official party autopsy, we must rely on a handful of outside views about where the party has gone wrong. Initial polling after the election indicated that Kamala Harris was inhibited not only by inflation but by voters’ perceptions that she and the Democrats held extreme views on social and cultural matters, such as immigration and trans issues. This was confirmed by Blue Rose Research, led by David Shor, which found that Democrats are seen as too liberal for a centre-right country and have lost trust on key issues like Social Security and education.

"At minimum, these findings mean that the party needs to get more comfortable running candidates with unorthodox views in harder-to-win places. But they must also ask how a vocal minority pushed them too far Left. If the party fails to fully reckon with the reasons for its loss, they’re likely to continue having trouble winning national elections — including possibly next year’s midterms.

"As the Blue Rose postmortem (and plenty of pre-election analysis) showed, Democrats have serious structural vulnerabilities that have gone unaddressed for many years. For example, the party has been steadily shedding support from non-white and working-class voters for more than a decade. Both were core parts of the post-Second World War Democratic coalition, and their growing struggles with these voters have made them less competitive in key states. Working-class voters, specifically, are a major cause of concern.