Not really, the emergency measures to avoid price gouging, is to my mind, is a form of martial law...something which would be untenable as a regular form of government but is required for the basic protection of the general citizenry, particularly after a natural disaster.
I actually posted two articles, one of them dealt with the pork that our government representatives are preparing to inflict on us in the name of "helping" the victims of the storm. I posted the two together because if the local government is passing laws to protect us from folks who intend to profit from human misery, the federal government is planning to do just that. Do you see no irony there?
Martial law is a direct application of force, a suspension of the normal peace, used at a time when the normal neighborhood/community web is broken. The property is there, but the owners are gone or incapacitated, so military forces might move in to prevent looting and chaos. I might be excused for thinking that soldiers in such a situation, toting battle rifles and grenades, might not wish to concern themselves with the price of "C" alkalines in the corner drugstore, that is, unless they need a couple themselves.
Bottom line: government is far from being the final, best solution, or even a good one. More often, government itself is the problem. Take away their power to "protect us from folks who intend to profit from human misery", and you take their power to profit from it themselves.