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Comment by random_upvoter | Hacker News Reader

There seems to be a widely accepted and unchallenged consensus that political power is unable to address inflation. Maybe it ain't necessarily so? In 1971 Nixon froze prices and wages by executive order. But these days the political world seems oddly submissive to whatever the market wants to do.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_shock

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> There seems to be a widely accepted and unchallenged consensus that political power is unable to address inflation.

Political power can address inflation, and it can mitigate the effects of inflation on the less well off. These are, however, often opposed goals.

E.g., massive taxes on the working class with no added spending would kill demand-driven inflation, but also make the non-rich worse off.

OTOH, downward redistribution by spending (possibly coupled with high end taxes) would mitigate the low-end effects of inflation, but increase the magnitude of conaumer price inflation.

> In 1971 Nixon froze prices and wages by executive orde

Price controls create black markets, but usually do not control effective prices.

Nixon's economic measures were a disaster that led to inflation and crisis. You can see that directly in your link btw.

That was not my point, but thanks for pointing out a paragraph in the source that I provided. I do notice a few 'citations needed' in the relevant clauses. Even so, if Nixon's policies resulted in failure that's not a reason for politicians today to just throw their hands in the air and declare that nothing can be done politically because "market dictates".

Well, if the one measure you point out as what the government could do today led to worse outcomes, then I do think they should abstain from that kind of interference in the future. I don't think price controls have worked anywhere.

So what's the plan now? Let this thing run its course until there are food riots in the USA?

Ironically, price controls are more likely to get us in that scenario, as they typically preclude shortages.

You are very confident in your knowledge about a lot of things.

When you noodle around in the market "to do what's right", you end up creating a new set of problems down the road when the expectation of getting bailed out becomes part of the market's future calculations.

See: FED keeping rates low for over a decade leading to complacency at banks who assume if things get really bad, FED will pivot rate hikes and they'll get bailed out again.

The current scandals surrounding Ticketmaster, sneakers, and GPUs are all you need to know that price controls would not work today.

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