The Price Czar

Kamaleon Harris outlines her vision for America...from the top down...

Kama, Kama, Kama, Kama, Kama Kamaleon,
You come and go, you come and go...

~ Kamala Kamaleon (with apologies to Boy George)

Joel Bowman with today’s Note From the End of the World: Buenos Aires, Argentina...

There’s an old adage in the sales business: always agree with your customer. 

But what if your “customers” are 168 million registered American voters? It’s hard to agree with everyone. Unless, of course, you have no principles. Then, you can agree with anyone...by lying to everyone. Easy!

Enter: Kamala “Kamaleon” Harris, empty vessel candidate for President of the United States of America... who needs YOUR vote!

Kamala is selling her vision of America, which, if you believe the cacophony of chorusing presstitutes in the mainstream media, is inextricably connected with “joy.”

Consider this smattering of headlines from purportedly independent, objective, totally-not-bought-and-paid-for “news” outlets. Anything jump out at you?

---

And here she is, recast by merry media marionettes as the “Happy, Joyful Warrior.”

Hmmm... there’s something decidedly inauthentic about a campaign that constantly feels the need to assure voters how very “joyful” they are... not to mention a media that marches in lockstep behind “The Message.”

But never mind all that... 

Closing Sale!

With just 81 days until elections in the US, the clock is ticking for America’s least favorite DEI Veep to close the sale. And that means jettisoning all the unpopular policies she held until *checks watch* about five minutes ago... like imposing a federal ban on fracking... mandating government healthcare... and calling to Defund the Police... for more “moderate” (read: saleable) positions. 

According to the amnesiacs in the establishment press, Kamaleon ‘24 has always been an avid supporter of American energy independence... pro-choice on healthcare... and a proud advocate of neighborhood cops. Just like, in Orwell’s classic dystopian novel, 1984, “Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.”

But wait, there’s more!

A few short years ago (what Gen Z voters know as “the olden days”), Kamala Harris supported mandatory gun buybacks, rallied hard behind the Green New Deal and even compared the southern border patrol to the KKK... 

And yet, if you listen to her speaking to customers voters in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Kamala presents herself as a staunch second amendment advocate who not only champions American energy and manufacturing jobs but who would defend the border herself.

Yes, gentle reader, on matters of substance, Kamala Harris is worth her weight in helium. Which is to say, she comes and goes, she comes and goes...

Such is the prerogative of the professional politician, liberated from the inconvenient shackles of basic truth and bare minimum standards.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with changing one’s opinion when the facts change. Not to do so would be dogmatic to a fault. But changing them only when the polls change is something else entirely. 

Thankfully, there is one thing Kamala Harris has been committed to from the get-go, and it ought to help voters really decide whether what she’s selling is right for them. 

That thing? Good ol’ fashioned, government-knows-best collectivism! 

The Price Czar

On Friday morning (Aug. 16), the Happy Harris marketing campaign launched its latest sales pitch to win your vote. Its core promise: lower prices for everyone!

Leaning into her hard-won economic illiteracy (Harris’s own father was a “Post-Keynesian” econ. professor...), the Tough-on-Numbers Veep pledged to spend her first 100 days in office helping to pass a national ban on “price gouging” for food and groceries. She also planned to “cap” drug prices and “increase” minimum wages, among other nonsensical edicts. 

Now, it may seem a bit rich that the co-pilot of Bidenomics should promise such a fanciful economic marvel. After all, the Biden-Harris administration charted a course to the nation’s highest levels of price inflation in over four decades. Under the current admin, prices across the board have increased by 20% since Jan, 2021, even according to official CPI data, while grocery prices in particular are up over 30%.

Those who argue all that has “nothing to do” with Miss Harris are apparently not listening to the White House’s own press secretary, Karine Jean Pierre, who on Monday confirmed “there’s not been any daylight” between Biden and Harris on matters of policy.

“[Harris is] going to lay out her vision. But again, they've been aligned, you know, they've been aligned for the last three and a half years. There's not been any daylight,” Jean Pierre said. 

Bidenflation, in other words, is also Harrisflation.

Still, according to the latter, inflation is not “always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon,” as Milton Friedman famously observed. Rather, it is a result – per Marx, Engels et al. – of “greedy capitalists” putting “profits before people.” 

Of course, Marx never met a horse he did not wish to place behind a cart...which helps explain Harris’s time-failed idea that it is governments, not markets, that ought to set prices. 

Cackler in Chief

You can read Harris’s entire economic policy platform, such as it is, for yourself. Needless to say, there are plenty of vote-buying giveaways and blind lolly scrambles to tickle every taste... like $25,000 monopoly dollar giveaways for first time home buyers... $6,000 tax credits for parents of newborns... 12-weeks paid maternity/paternity/theyternity leave... plus bazillion dollar hourly minimum wages (why not?)... and rainbow smiles for anyone who can make it across the border.

And just how does Miss Harris plan to spur her cloud-galloping herd of winged unicorns, such that she might visit each and every chimney across the land? 

By unleashing the creative forces of the free market? By allowing competition to drive innovation? By abrogating governmental bureaucracy such that true information – price, profit, margin, momentum, value, volume, etc. – can relay clearly to buyers and sellers alike? By leaving entrepreneurs and small business owners alone to do what they do best, to serve their customer? 

Ha! Don’t make us cackle!

Instead, Harris pledges to “control” prices the way conceited meddlers have done since the Code of Hammurabi – which set to fix prices, wages, interest rates, and associated market fees – was first chiseled... 4,000 years ago. 

That is to say, by decree... diktat... fiat. By force. 

Common sense readers will recognize such policies for what they are: price controls. 

They understand that, in a free market, when prices “go up,” as during a temporary decline in the supply of a desired good and/or service, they send an important signal to the rest of the market, drawing suppliers off the sidelines in pursuit of profit.

Thus are “greedy capitalists” incentivized to meet real world demand, increasing the supply of goods and/or services where they are needed most. When supply rises to fill demand, competition once again works to drive down prices, to the benefit of the consumer, who now leverages the competitive advantage of market choice. 

Ordinarily, it takes an advanced degree in economics not to know how markets work. Astoundingly, Miss Harris managed a PhD level of agnorance with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science.

As such, Madam will not tolerate buyers and sellers interacting voluntarily to set agreed-upon prices... to choose freely from an array of competing actors... she will direct them from on high!

It was the great economist, Henry Hazlitt, who said of the impulse to “control” prices (and by extension, people):

The first thing to be said about wage and price fixing is that it is harmful at any time and under any conditions. It is a giant step toward a dictated, regimented, and authoritarian economy.

So if it’s fair prices and voluntary trade you’re after, try the free market. If it’s price controls and the collectivist impulse you prefer, Miss Harris might just be the Kamaleon for you. 

Stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World...

Cheers,

Joel Bowman

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