Harris Wants to Impose Nixon-era Price Controls

Get ready for the economic "tidal wave"

As the glamour droops from VP Harris’ dramatic ‘installation’ as Democratic presidential nominee, she resorts to a proven crowd-pleasing, economic disaster called government-mandated price controls.

The latest Rasmussen poll shows Trump pulling ahead of Harris both in a 2 and 3-way race, while Pew Research shows Harris lead narrowed to a single point, gaining most of her support from Biden voters that had soured and moved over Robert Kennedy. Even the newest Emerson poll indicates Trump leading by a point in Pennsylvania.

With stagnant wages and rising prices voter’s chief worries, Harris addressed the former by mimicking Biden’s commitment not to raise taxes on those earning under $400,000 annually.

Detractors claim the Biden/Harris plan does increase taxes on the middle class. USA Today rushed to their defense saying it is false referencing the duo’s remarks there will be “no new taxes” on those earning less than $400,000.

True enough. But here’s the ‘catch.’ By allowing the Trump tax cuts to expire, their plan provides potential “old tax” increases for virtually every tax-paying person under the $400,000 cutoff. The magic of political double-speak.

As for inflation, in 1971 President Nixon jolted the U.S. economy with “Nixon shock”, a multi-point plan including broad wage and price controls, import taxes, and suspension of the dollar’s convertibility into gold.

His plan was an instant success…the media loved it, Wall Street soared, and polls showed 75% of the public approving. But the jubilation soon ended when the consequences hit.

Nixon’s moves set the economy for a decade of stagflation, a stage where economic growth reduces, while unemployment, and prices increase. With the government managing more of the economy, the central banks gained greater control over the money supply and interest rates, and foreign nations established new exchange rates based on a devalued dollar.

According to financial expert on international markets, John Stanislaw, “Ranchers stopped shipping their cattle to the market, farmers drowned their chickens, and consumers emptied the shelves of supermarkets.” Grocery shelves were bare and rising costs hurt the lower and middle income tiers most.

Today much is similar to Nixon’s economic debacle.

By 1979 the lost gold standard was partially replaced by petrodollars, a scheme that shored up the value of the dollar when Saudi Arabia agreed to make all oil purchases in U.S. dollars. But in June 2024, after 50 years, Saudi Arabia decided not to renew the deal with the Biden Administration. The position of the dollar as the world’s currency was substantially weakened when Saudi Arabia moved to increase financial ties to other nations.

Today employment is even shakier than in Nixon’s era. While the headline employment data in news cycles appear positive, the more accurate household survey shows a much different picture. In May of 2024, while the headlines boasted 272,000 new jobs,. the household survey revealed a loss of 408,000. Nearly 50% of the jobs went to foreign workers, government jobs, and subsidized health industry. A worker holding 3 part-time jobs is categorized as 3 new employed.

Harris’s program promises to boost the economy by placing a cap on grocery store prices. Like her boss, Kamala maintains corporate greed is the cause of high prices and, like Nixon will reign them in.

But data shows that grocers operate on very small margins of less than 2% and a recent study reveals high markups, what Harris calls “gouging,” are not the main driver of recent inflation.

Simply put, high grocery prices and other inflation have been caused by big government spending and easy money policies, which Biden/Harris enacted and supported.

It’s bad when government manipulated data puts a smiley face on a sinking economy. It’s bad when politicians make misguided promises to bolster votes. It’s catastrophic when those policies result in the destruction of jobs, businesses, living standards, and hope for the future.