I'm amazed that politicians stupid enough to implement price controls would be smart enough to remove those controls after only eight months.
Ammonium
· 3 years ago
But I thought Hawaii's price controls were a success!?! Obviously these politicians are getting paid off by oil companies.
spencer
· 3 years ago
I guess I'm too much of a cynic. When I first heard about this I saw that there were two refiners in Hawaii and assumed that they and their lobyiest would get together with the politicians and cut a deal where the politicians would write legislation for price setting that would not be significantly different from what the duoploly suppliers had been using for years.
As far as I can tell I have seen nothing to disprove my original analysis that the price controls would not make any difference except maybe to allow the refiners to be more profitable. Don't most academic economist teach in their introductory economics clasess that firms almost always capture the regulators?
I can not understand why anybody would have though the results would have been any different in the crony capitalist system that dominates the oil business.
liberty
· 3 years ago
>I can not understand why anybody would have though the results would have been any different in the crony capitalist system that dominates the oil business.
Right, it works much better when the price setting is done by good honest representatives of the proletariat; such as in the USSR.
Christopher Meisenzahl
· 3 years ago
Don't worry, someone will try it again. ;-)
Kevin
· 3 years ago
What's funny is the idiot Hawaiian politicians couldn't even get price-capping right. They capped the wholesale price but not the retail price. That's smart: squeeze the supply chain to make supply scarce, and then allow the retailers to charge whatever they want for the reduced supply.
I don't think you could come up with a better formula for MAXIMIZING prices. Producers usually have to engage in illegal collusion to pull that off!
Morons.
xteve
· 3 years ago
Yeah, but they're bound to get it right next time.
All Comments
I'm amazed that politicians stupid enough to implement price controls would be smart enough to remove those controls after only eight months.
But I thought Hawaii's price controls were a success!?! Obviously these politicians are getting paid off by oil companies.
I guess I'm too much of a cynic. When I first heard about this I saw that there were two refiners in Hawaii and assumed that they and their lobyiest would get together with the politicians and cut a deal where the politicians would write legislation for price setting that would not be significantly different from what the duoploly suppliers had been using for years.
As far as I can tell I have seen nothing to disprove my original analysis that the price controls would not make any difference except maybe to allow the refiners to be more profitable. Don't most academic economist teach in their introductory economics clasess that firms almost always capture the regulators?
I can not understand why anybody would have though the results would have been any different in the crony capitalist system that dominates the oil business.
>I can not understand why anybody would have though the results would have been any different in the crony capitalist system that dominates the oil business.
Right, it works much better when the price setting is done by good honest representatives of the proletariat; such as in the USSR.
Don't worry, someone will try it again. ;-)
What's funny is the idiot Hawaiian politicians couldn't even get price-capping right. They capped the wholesale price but not the retail price. That's smart: squeeze the supply chain to make supply scarce, and then allow the retailers to charge whatever they want for the reduced supply.
I don't think you could come up with a better formula for MAXIMIZING prices. Producers usually have to engage in illegal collusion to pull that off!
Morons.
Yeah, but they're bound to get it right next time.