?The Moment,? TIME?s weekly excursion into ersatz journalism, focuses this week on a comparison between 2008 and the America of the 1970s. David Von Drehle tell us:
Thanks to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which crippled Gulf Coast refineries, drivers in the Southeast are creeping around town with their gas gauges on empty, searching for a pump that isn’t dry. And while oil companies said supply would improve by Columbus Day, the long lines aren’t the only thing giving us d?j? vu.
What Von Drehle ignores is the return of price controls. While price controls caused the gas lines and shortages of the 1970s, the de facto price controls of price-gouging laws in North Carolina and Georgia are causing the same problems now.
