"Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is upset about "price gouging" during hurricane Harvey.
Some stores raised prices to $99 for a case of bottled water—$5 for a gallon of gas.
"These are things you can't do in Texas," he says.
"There are significant penalties if you price gouge in a crisis like this."There sure are: $20,000 per "gouge"—$200,000 if the "victim" is a senior citizen.
...Prices should rise during emergencies.
Price changes save lives.
That's because prices aren't just money—they are information.
Price changes tell suppliers what their customers want most, maybe chainsaws more than blankets, water more than flashlights.
"Quit your witch hunt," economist Don Boudreaux wrote Paxton.
"Government intervention is often justified as a means of correcting 'market failure.' But by enforcing prohibitions on 'price gouging' your office causes market failure."..."
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