Price Controls Cause Shortages
Posted on 08/28/2022 4:04:09 PM PDT by RomanSoldier19
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer backs a European Union-wide cap on runaway electricity prices, he said in a statement issued by his office on Sunday.
Austria's conservative-led government was initially sceptical at the idea of capping power prices but it has warmed to the idea as they have continued to rise in line with soaring gas prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"We must finally stop the madness that is taking place in energy markets. And that can only happen through a European solution," the statement quoted Nehammer as saying, adding that he would seek to convince holdouts in the bloc.
"Something has to happen at last. This market will not regulate itself in its current form. I call on all the EU 27 (member states) to stand together to stop this price explosion immediately."
Austria is heavily dependent on Russian gas particularly in industry and heating, obtaining about 80% of its supply from Russia before the war. Most of its electricity, however, comes from renewables and there is growing incomprehension among the Austrian public at the market system where gas and power prices are closely linked.
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
Reopening them would be a better remedy than price controls.
I was working in a grocery store when Nixon imposed price controls. Shortages indeed.
“Most of its electricity, however, comes from renewables...”
Color me skeptical.
The European Union was created by Idiots for Idiots or was it Nazis without firing a shot ,LOL
Good luck with that one Karl…LOL
Nazis gonna Nazi.
The Caps will cause shortages. This is self-inflicted Genocide on themselves and the the riots over there will start when winter hits and they have little food and no heat.
I have a brilliant idea. Cap the price of gasoline at 99¢ per gallon.
Rising prices are merely a leading symptom of inflation, not the phenomenon itself. Inflation can exist, and, indeed, accelerate, even though this particular symptom is prevented from appearing. Inflation itself is not rising prices, but an unduly large increase in the quantity of money, caused, almost invariably, by the government. In fact, a good definition of inflation would be, simply: an increase in the quantity of money caused by the government. Rising prices as a chronic social problem are a consequence of governments overthrowing the use of gold and silver as money and putting in their place unbacked paper currencies and checking deposits whose quantity can be increased without limit and virtually without cost.
How ironic...the Austrian School of Economics is based in Austria and it sounds like these guys never heard of it.
So they want a supply shortage instead? Amazing to think that “Austrian” was the name of a capitalist economic theory.
Ok, let’s say the government is paying $8.00 per gallon but the wholesale market demands $10.00.
The price is capped at $8.00. The government is in a showdown with the big oil corps’ concerning WHO’s going to pay the difference. In America, Biden demands the Big Oil Fat Cats pay it......a huge laugher.
Big oil doesn’t blink. The government doesn’t blink. The people, at least a lot of them, freeze or starve because of voting in Greenies. Good lesson in socialism for the rest of the world.
Same mechanism goes for LNG or Natural Gas. Merkel and her marxist pals shut down coal and nukes and people are going to die! She better move to the outback in Australia.
Over here, pissed off people are shooting up FBI offices for far lesser issues than starving or freezing to death.
“I was working in a grocery store when Nixon imposed price controls. Shortages indeed.”
In the 1970s we had multi-hour GAS LINES due to price controls on gasoline. Carter and then Reagan removed all price controls in the early 1980s. That was 40 years ago. Since then we have NEVER had gas lines again.
Put price controls on electricity, you will, FOR CERTAIN, have shortages as demand will always exceed supply when prices are artificially constrained. That means BLACKOUTS.
If Europe wants to do something, perhaps give every household $3,000. That would cover much of the added power bills due to ‘punishing’ Putin.
But by giving them cash, they wouldn’t have to spend it on electricity as the high price of power would still discourage that spending, so they’ll still get some reduction in demand.
Or just call up Moscow and ask them how soon US troops have to leave Europe in order for Russia to resume energy deliveries there.
so when all of EU power companies go bankrupt, where will the electricity come from then?
Price controls have NEVER WORKED.
Start with a cap on salaries of government bureaucrats and politicians. Make them suffer PERSONALLY for their stupidity.
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