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Wally Grigo's avatar

It's astonishing that no one wants to touch price controls as the answer to this problem. This reminds me of the joke of two inmates in a prison cell. One guy wants to hang a picture on the wall, but he's trying to bang the POINTED end of the nail into the wall with no success. He's slams down his hammer in disgust and declares: "These idiot prison guards can't even give you nails with the point on the right end!" His cell mate points to the opposite wall and says: "You idiot! Don't you know that nail is meant to go on THAT wall?" Neither man can see the obvious solution to the problem.

Think of the pandemic this way: suppose New York City is blasted by a rogue cold front and temperatures plunge into the single digits in the middle of July. What should New Yorkers do? Curse the cold and stay indoors, stop going to work and curtailing their shopping trips and restaurant visits, or should they get their winter coats and sweaters out of storage and weather out the deep freeze? Yes, it's weird to wear a winter coat during a New York summer, and it's weird to slap on price controls--except in the middle of a pandemic. You do what the circumstances require.

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Allen Sharples's avatar

Thoughtful article. Keep the data flowing

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