We can play the word game and throw political ideologies around like frisbees, but the real issue is price controls.
During the Hurricane Sandy disaster there were price caps on gas and the desired effect was to discourage panic buying, but the opposite occurred -- since suppliers had no interest in accommodating the authorities then supply dried up.
It's not a matter of the suppliers being greedy assholes about it, but there were real and higher costs associated with supplying gas to NYC and the surrounding areas. They just didn't want to take the hit to their pocketbooks and I don't blame them.
What also happened was the well-connected people were able to make arrangements for their own private supplies of gas, and those people included politicians, business leaders, and other wealthy people, but it was secretive and supply was restricted to them. The politicians were publicly attacking/shaming "scalpers" who were trying to sell gas at a fair price, meanwhile they were secretly making back-room deals for themselves.
What's the lesson here? Depends on who you ask and what you goals are. Instituting price caps usually results in suppliers losing interest and disappearing, which is probably what happened in Venezuela.
Oh, and a black market of gas emerged. There were iOS and Android apps for finding suppliers and becoming a supplier yourself. I'm usually the first to ridicule statements like "the market corrected itself" but it stands to reason that it applies here quite well.
> What also happened was the well-connected people were able to make arrangements for their own private supplies of gas, and those people included politicians, business leaders, and other wealthy people, but it was secretive and supply was restricted to them. The politicians were publicly attacking/shaming "scalpers" who were trying to sell gas at a fair price, meanwhile they were secretly making back-room deals for themselves.
It's interesting because my information source on this is mostly reddit.com comments across a wide variety of sections -- nyc, economics, conspiracy, libertarian, communism.
During the Hurricane Sandy disaster there were price caps on gas and the desired effect was to discourage panic buying, but the opposite occurred -- since suppliers had no interest in accommodating the authorities then supply dried up.
It's not a matter of the suppliers being greedy assholes about it, but there were real and higher costs associated with supplying gas to NYC and the surrounding areas. They just didn't want to take the hit to their pocketbooks and I don't blame them.
What also happened was the well-connected people were able to make arrangements for their own private supplies of gas, and those people included politicians, business leaders, and other wealthy people, but it was secretive and supply was restricted to them. The politicians were publicly attacking/shaming "scalpers" who were trying to sell gas at a fair price, meanwhile they were secretly making back-room deals for themselves.
What's the lesson here? Depends on who you ask and what you goals are. Instituting price caps usually results in suppliers losing interest and disappearing, which is probably what happened in Venezuela.
Oh, and a black market of gas emerged. There were iOS and Android apps for finding suppliers and becoming a supplier yourself. I'm usually the first to ridicule statements like "the market corrected itself" but it stands to reason that it applies here quite well.