Pandemic Price Gouging, Still Happening

I have been working through some health issues, so I am now just catching up. Sorry for the flood of posts today. Steve

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The evidence is very, very clear that many corporations are price gouging to the point of price fixing (they are doing it out in the open now, so sure of their capture of the reins of government). This is nowhere near as detrimental to the American public (or as obvious) as in the oil industry. As much as 10% or even more of the inflation hit people have felt is due to the oil industry’s shenanigans.

The response from “industry pundits” is the typical “that’s how markets work.”

It is oh, so clear now that the much touted “free markets” are a deliberate fiction, never to have existed nor never will exist. Markets are always controlled. They cannot operate without controls. The question is whether you want markets to be regulated by governments, supposedly representatives of “the people,” or regulated by the industries themselves.

What we are seeing now is that the industries themselves want the latter. They want to be able to fix and control prices and therefore profits. And their guiding principles in doing so are not the betterment of one and all or “for the good of the country,” it is whatever lines their pockets with evermore cash.