The War on Prices

"""It is not just actual prices that have risen unusually rapidly in recent years--muddled thinking about prices has grown exponentially. I do not agree with the conclusion of every chapter of this volume, but I agree with most of them. And all of them are grounded in the type of rigorous economics and empirics that are sadly missing in too much of the popular debate.""--Jason Furman, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy, Harvard University ""Prices make people angry. Most of the time we feel like we are paying too much for the goods or services we consume, or are being paid too little for the labor we sell. But prices are also a miracle--they make commerce possible and convey invaluable information. We mess with them at our peril. Ryan Bourne has edited a delightful collection of essays that stand up for what is perhaps the most hated but most important of economic indicators--the market price.""--Allison Schrager, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and columnist at Bloomberg Opinion ""The United States and indeed most of the world is coming off a major bout of inflation. Fallacies have been multiplying in the media and from commentators. Ryan Bourne has edited a new volume--The War on Prices--that sets the record straight. Here is your go‐​to book on rising prices, price controls, and other government policies toward prices.""--Tyler Cowen Cowen, founder of Marginal Revolution ""The War on Prices is a fantastic book. It comprehensively makes the case that price controls do great harm, often to the people they are supposed to help. Particularly good are the chapters on rent controls, price controls on oil and natural gas, and so‐​called junk fees, which are really fees to solve problems that would exist without them. If the chapter on why we should have a free market in water were taken to heart, my fellow Californians and I would be much better off. Read this book and learn.""--David R. Henderson, research fellow at the Hoover Institution and editor of The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics ""Bourne has assembled a cast of economists and policy experts who extend their reasoning beyond economic analysis to the lessons of history and what these things teach us about the folly of denying the truth about prices. The power of their arguments is complemented by these essays' accessibility and judicious use of empirical information. This makes them as useful to the everyman as they are to policymakers.""--Samuel Gregg ""Law & Liberty"" ""Bourne has crafted an exceptional collection of accessible but substantive arguments that are more than the sum of their parts. Together, they form a sober, articulate, and--unfortunately--much-needed defense of market prices for a society that has forgotten that the suppression of information to avoid unwanted facts or advance a political agenda seldom works out well.""--Daniel M. Rothschild ""Discourse Magazine"""