One of the most remarkable aspects of the New Deal was its hostility to price competition. The “Brain Trust” advisers who helped to craft it were all believers in government economic planning who thought that prosperity could be restored if prices were raised and kept high by federal edict. Falling prices were not understood as signals for market adjustment, but rather as the cause of the depression.
In this article Jim Powell discusses the variety of ways that the New Deal waged war against price competition.
Crackpot economic intervention in 1933-4-5. Crackpot economic intervention in 2007-8-9….
