Monday, 9 September 2024

A Book Review on Price Controls..............


With the development of Transfinancial Economics we would get a far more accurate picture of Economy as never before in human history. It would give us vital knowledge on how advanced digital price controls (as opposed to largely manual ones) could  be successfully used to control inflation. This would be a huge step forward and as more and more capital could be transmitted into the economy to notably  to fund vital huge and small green sustainable business  projects et cetera on a colossal scale. Ofcourse, shortages may occur but they would be increasingly rare. All this would happen in a capitalist type economy. 

Transfinancial Economics


R. Searle/blogger




How Popular Misconceptions about Inflation, Prices, and Value Create Bad Policy

This edited volume debunks popular myths about the origins of inflation, the desirability of price controls, and what product prices tell us about value.

 • Published By Cato Institute

Was inflation’s recent spike exacerbated by corporate greed? Do rent controls really help the needy? Are U.S. health care prices set in a Wild West marketplace? Do women get paid less than men for the same work, and do they pay more than men for the same products? The War on Prices is an eye-opening book that answers all these burning questions and more, as top economists debunk popular misconceptions about inflation, prices, and value.

Market prices are under siege. The war on prices is waged most obviously with damaging government price controls and the harmful effects of central bank monetary mismanagement, as we saw with the recent inflation. Yet these bad policies are propped up by widespread, misguided public beliefs about the causes of inflation, the effects of price controls, and the inherent morality of market prices.

Breaking down these complex issues into three distinct sections―inflation, price controls, and value―this book both sheds light on long-standing contentions and brings economic theory and evidence to bear in today’s most contentious debates. Threaded through the book is a revealing truth: too many of us misunderstand the origin, role, and worth of market prices in our economy. The old insult goes that “economists know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” The War on Prices shows that good economists―and soon, you―can appreciate the value of unshackled market prices in delivering prosperity.

Praise for the book

“The United States and indeed most of the world is coming off a major bout of inflation. Fallacies have been multiplying in the media and from commentators. Ryan Bourne has edited a new volume—The War on Prices—that sets the record straight. Here is your go-to book on rising prices, price controls, and other government policies toward prices.”
—Tyler Cowen, Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University and founder of Marginal Revolution

“It is not just actual prices that have risen unusually rapidly in recent years—muddled thinking about prices has grown exponentially. I do not agree with the conclusion of every chapter of this volume, but I agree with most of them. And all of them are grounded in the type of rigorous economics and empirics that are sadly missing in too much of the popular debate.”
—Jason Furman, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy, Harvard University

The War on Prices is a fantastic book. It comprehensively makes the case that price controls do great harm, often to the people they are supposed to help. Particularly good are the chapters on rent controls, price controls on oil and natural gas, and so-called junk fees, which are really fees to solve problems that would exist without them. If the chapter on why we should have a free market in water were taken to heart, my fellow Californians and I would be much better off. Read this book and learn.”
—David R. Henderson, research fellow at the Hoover Institution and editor of The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics

“Prices make people angry. Most of the time we feel like we are paying too much for the goods or services we consume, or are being paid too little for the labor we sell. But prices are also a miracle—they make commerce possible and convey invaluable information. We mess with them at our peril. Ryan Bourne has edited a delightful collection of essays that stand up for what is perhaps the most hated but most important of economic indicators—the market price.”
—Allison Schrager, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and columnist at Bloomberg Opinion

Contributors

Brian Albrecht, Pedro Aldighieri, Nicholas Anthony, David Beckworth, Eamonn Butler, Vanessa Brown CalderMichael Cannon, Jeffrey Clemens, Bryan Cutsinger, Alex Edmans, Peter Jaworski, Pierre Lemieux, Deirdre McCloskeyJeffrey Miron, Liya Palagashvili, Joseph Sabia, J. R. Shackleton, Peter Van Doren, and Stan Veuger

About the editor

Ryan A. Bourne occupies the R. Evan Scharf Chair for the Public Understanding of Economics at the Cato Institute and is a columnist for The Times (UK). He has written on a variety of economic issues, including fiscal policy, inequality, price and wage controls, and infrastructure spending, and is the author of Economics in One Virus: An Introduction to Economic Reasoning through COVID-19. He has extensive broadcast and print media experience and has appeared on CNN, CNBC, BBC News, Sky News, and Fox Business Network.


The above came from a link which appeared in the following article. Unfortunately, the link does not work at present. 

https://www.ft.com/content/63934a18-e71e-457a-be7f-8d93c75f13f2

Chris Giles on Central Banks  Central banksAdd to myFT Why Kamala Harris’s price proposals could be damaging for the US economy Presidential candidate’s economic plan is good politics but its impact is likely to be underwhelming 

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