SEPTEMBER 2024 | VOLUME 53, ISSUE 9
The Dangers of Price Controls
Henry Hazlitt and Brian Wesbury

The first issue of Imprimis, published in May 1972, featured an article titled “The Dangers of Price Controls” by Henry Hazlitt. The Federal Reserve back then was printing large amounts of money to fund massive government spending on Great Society programs launched during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson. As a result of printing so much money, the U.S. economy was suffering from rapid inflation. To address inflation, Federal Reserve Chair Arthur Burns and the Nixon administration dreamed up wage and price controls.

Today we face a similar situation. The Federal Reserve has been printing a lot of money to fund the huge expansion in the size and scope of government that took place during and after the Covid pandemic. In response to the resulting inflation and the political unrest that comes with it, Vice President Harris and others are promising to outlaw “price gouging”—in other words, to impose price controls—which will eventually lead to wage controls as well, since production and prices involve both in an intimate way.

Because economic truth remains the same today as it was 52 years ago, we are reprinting Henry Hazlitt’s article from 1972, but with edits and updates by Brian Wesbury that bring Hazlitt’s classic piece into today’s world.