Free Republic

The 60,000 patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer over the next three years could be out of luck for a treatment, thanks to Biden and congressional Democrats.Less than 18 months after Democrats rammed through a series of price controls on what Medicare pays for prescription drugs — the better to pay for Tesla subsidies and other green pork — and guess what has happened? Drugmakers are responding to the (bad) incentives Democrats created.Just before the holidays, Bloomberg reported on how many pharmaceutical companies have delayed bringing products to market to maximize the revenue they can generate before Medicare gets to “negotiate”...

Rationing today is seen as a sign that things have gone very wrong. In HBO’s The Last of Us—where humanity has been decimated by a fungal infection that turns people into violent meat sacs—quarantine zone residents swap ration cards for shoelaces and trade them on the black market for drugs. In the real world, meanwhile, produce is being rationed in the UK amid a whopping 17 percent rise in grocery prices, seen by many as a failure of government planning. But rationing, when needed, hasn’t always gotten such a bad rap. Sometimes people have even supported it, even after largely...

History has a way of repeating itself. Or maybe it's that people cling to defunct beliefs, stubbornly refusing to learn from experience. Such stubbornness is on display when pundits, legislators and President Joe Biden blame inflation on corporate "greed." The fix, they claim, is price controls. But such controls would only bring further economic calamity. To explain hikes in the prices of meat, poultry and energy, many politicians and pundits say we must look no further than cold-hearted corporate CEOs padding their bottom lines at the expense of ordinary Americans. Companies today are allegedly so greedy that they use the...

With some pundits advocating for price controls to fight inflation, it suddenly feels like the 1970s again. This type of overbearing intervention has never worked as marketed, something President Richard Nixon discovered in 1973 when he lifted the wage and price controls he had implemented two years earlier. Still, to those unwilling to learn from history, such controls will always seem sensible. Inflation amounts to rising prices, they say, so locking in prices is a supposed easy fix. But treating inflation this way is like masking a symptom rather than curing the illness. Inflation can no more be controlled by...

eople are paying a lot more for food, gas, cars and services, and inflation isn't over yet as the pandemic continues to distort the economy. So should governments consider setting the price of essential goods? t's been done before, typically during times of crisis, but for most mainstream economists, the answer to this question is a resounding "no." Limiting how much companies can charge will distort markets, they argue, causing shortages and exacerbating supply chain problems while only temporarily reducing inflation. "Price controls can of course control prices — but they're a terrible idea," David Autor, a professor of economics...

As a gesture of goodwill, President Biden recently announced that the U.S. will be shipping 20 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to other countries. This altruistic policy not only puts American values on full display but is also a testament to the strength of American pharmaceutical innovation. It is no coincidence that the U.S. has robust intellectual property (IP) protections and was the first out of the gate to have a COVID-19 vaccine ready. Unfortunately, these strong IP safeguards may be on the chopping block. The Biden administration’s recent decision to support an IP protections waiver for COVID-19 drugs is a...

President Trump has pulled the trigger on actually lowering prescription drug prices. By ending arbitrary trade barriers he could save Americans over $50 Billion a year. Even staunch believers in free-market capitalism recognize that there are areas where the government is required to put on a striped shirt and play the referee. Republicans going back to Teddy Roosevelt have understood that. Especially when companies have acquired monopoly powers. President Roosevelt ruffled feathers among Wall Street tycoons when he launched his effort to break up the trusts. Trusts that were abusing their market power, creating monopolies. American consumers were being harmed...

Despite overwhelming historical evidence demonstrating the folly of government-imposed price controls, modern politicians just can't seem to quit inflicting them on us. One obvious example involves health care, where price controls on prescription medications always seem to be just around the corner and are now being considered in the rush to eliminate surprise medical bills. Fewer people know about similar efforts regarding the aluminum market, where some politicians are contemplating price controls to compensate victims of the trade war. Back in March 2018, President Donald Trump announced that he would impose a 10% tariff on all imported aluminum (unless an...

The idea of price controls is an easy sell to people who don’t know any better. But history has repeatedly shown they not only don’t work, they’re a disaster. That they are a disaster might be why the idea is gaining so much traction among Democrats both running for president and currently running Congress – namely Nancy Pelosi – progressives have always left a trail of disaster in their wake. But in one industry in particular, a disaster will be exceptionally hard to recover from: health care. The story in health care that is getting all the attention is “Medicare...

One of President Donald Trump’s biggest campaign promises in 2016 was a desire to see drug prices go down. Trump has kept the rhetoric going with a comment on Twitter in 2017 blasting drug prices and an announcement last year he planned to create a new framework of price controls.“It also gives Medicare Part D plans new tools to negotiate lower prices for more drugs, and make sure that Medicare Part D incentives encourage drug companies to keep prices low,” the President crowed during a news conference at Health and Human Services last year announcing the plan. “There’s a...

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. Texas, a state that I thought understood capitalism, punishes people who practice it. Prices should rise during emergencies. Price changes save lives. That's because prices aren't just money -- they...

It is especially painful for me, as an economist, to see that two small cities in northern California — San Mateo and Burlingame — have rent control proposals on the ballot this election year. There are various other campaigns, in other places around the country, for and against minimum wage laws, which likewise make me wonder if the economics profession has failed to educate the public in the most elementary economic lessons. Neither rent control nor minimum wage laws — nor price control laws in general — are new. Price control laws go back as far as ancient Egypt and...

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is going down to Chavezville by repeating the same errors as Venezuela. The only way that she could mess up Argentina any further would be by actually starting a war with the UK. Last month, retailers agreed to freeze the prices of around 200 basic goods–ranging from detergent to milk to condoms–to fight inflation that economists say likely surpasses 30% annually. Obviously there’s a problem here. Passing price controls doesn’t mean that the products will actually be available. At the time, retailers said the agreement could lead to supply problems if manufacturers of certain goods...

The Denver Post warns, "Milk, food prices could rise if Congress fails to act." Congress is working on a farm bill, which, among other things, will set limits on how high or low milk prices can be in different regions of the country. Politicians from both parties like to meddle in agriculture. When the Heritage Foundation told Republicans not to pass any farm bill, "conservative" politicians banned Heritage from their weekly meetings. But why should politicians be involved in agriculture? Why should they set food prices, any more than they set the price of books or staplers? The market decides...

If this were not true, it would be unbelieveable.  You could not make this up, let alone imagine it. Argentina's food prices are out of control. Just read that title, and  ponder what an absurdity that is. Argentina arguably has the best beef and grain growing regions on the planet. The Pampas are grasslands that run from the cooler south to the subtropical regions of the north. They are roughly equal in size to the United States' agricultural zones; but with only one-eighth the population of the United States, almost all of Argentina's produce is available for export. Argentina...

Fearing that health insurance premiums may shoot up in the next few years, Senate Democrats laid a foundation on Tuesday for federal regulation of rates, four weeks after President Obama signed a law intended to rein in soaring health costs. After a hearing on the issue, the chairman of the Senate health committee, Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, said he intended to move this year on legislation that would “provide an important check on unjustified premiums.” Mr. Harkin praised a bill introduced by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, that would give the secretary of health and human services the...

This week it became impossible in Massachusetts for small businesses and individuals to buy health-care coverage after Governor Deval Patrick imposed price controls on premiums. Read on, because under ObamaCare this kind of political showdown will soon be coming to an insurance market near you.

Every single day of this man's presidency is focused on destroying individual liberty and capitalism. There is no absolutely no authority for the federal government to control insurance premiums. This is right out of the Politburo's handbook. President Obama will propose on Monday giving the federal government new power to block excessive rate increases by health insurance companies, as he rolls out comprehensive legislation to revamp the nation?s health care system, White House officials said. Keep in mind that this is effectively seizing control of the health insurance industry. After all, if you control the rates, you control the companies'...

100 Items, 100 Fixed Prices By Kim Tae Hong [2010-02-11 15:42 ] The North Korean authorities released the fixed prices for one hundred items on February 4th. The Daily NK, which reported on the issue at the time, has now received the full list of prices. By announcing fixed state prices, the authorities de facto removed much of the existing market regulation, albeit that they simultaneously attempted to control prices, which had been running wild since the botched redenomination of November 30th. On the ground in the jangmadang, The Daily NK has heard that people are selling goods for market...

Without the profit on drugs, there is no research and development. There is no innovation. There are no new drugs.It's happened before, exactly as described above, in America: After anthrax-laced letters killed five Americans in the wake of the 2001 World Trade Center attacks, Secretary of Health Tommy Thompson threatened to suspend Bayer's patent on its antibiotic Cipro unless the company agreed to his "preferred" price. Bayer, faced with the prospect of generic companies getting the right to break its U.S. patent, caved and slashed its price from $1.83 to less than $1 per pill. In 2004, Congress passed legislation,...