Price-gouging laws are another instance of “fixing” a problem by making it worse. Here is a video from Art Carden that explains. Simply put, after a disaster, a (temporarily) high price acts like a cattle call to bring supply where it’s needed from where it’s plentiful:
The video is based on Duke professor Michael Munger’s piece from 2007, “They Clapped: Can Price-Gouging Laws Prohibit Scarcity?“
