Progressive Pushback

The economic policies Harris advocated in her address were roundly condemned, even by left-wing economists.

Jason Furman, a top economic adviser in the Obama administration, said, “This is not sensible policy, and I think the biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality. There’s no upside here, and there is some downside.”

Liberal columnist and CNN commentator Catherine Rampell blasted Harris’s price control policies as “totally unworkable,” saying, “We’ve seen this kind of thing tried in lots of other countries before – Venezuela, Argentina, the Soviet Union, et cetera – it leads to shortages, it leads to black markets, and plenty of uncertainty.”

In a column for the Washington Post, Rampell wrote:

“It’s hard to exaggerate how bad this policy is. It is, in all but name, a sweeping set of government-enforced price controls across every industry, not only food. Supply and demand would no longer determine prices or profit levels. Far-off Washington bureaucrats would.”

There’s been some attempt at damage control, with Harris campaign operatives saying, “We’re not going to set prices.” Well, who decides what is “price gouging,” and how is that not setting prices?

Maybe it doesn’t matter. If you’re a recent college graduate struggling to make ends meet, you were likely never taught real economics, and here comes Harris to help you buy a house. It’s possible that terrible economics is good politics.

By the way, it’s not a stretch to point out Harris’s Marxist leanings. She had a voting record to the left of Bernie Sanders. She chose a running mate who has praised Chinese communism. And her father is a Marxist economist.