Campaigning against ‘gouging’ makes for good politics, but lousy policy

California’s most prominent political figures, Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Gavin Newsom, have devised similar strategies to offset consumer price increases from what they label as corporate greed—call it the California anti-gouging strategy.

Vice President Harris has aimed her anti-gouging strategy at grocery stores. The details are thin, but Harris claims her anti-gouging regulations will force grocers to bring down food prices, even though reportedly groceries live off a narrow profit margin.