Americans of my generation, and of earlier ones, will remember – not fondly – the gasoline lines of Fall 1973 and the even worse lines of Summer 1979. The gasoline shortages of the disco decade were the predictable consequence of energy price controls that, although eased somewhat by Carter, weren’t completely removed until Reagan eliminated them in January 1981.
I think it likely that a significant reason why Carter lost the 1980 presidential election was that Americans angrily remembered those gawdawful lines of a year earlier and the accompanying anxiety about being able to fuel their automobiles.
There is no surer sign of economic ignorance – indeed, of corpulent and unalloyed economic stupidity – than having government threaten to prevent private suppliers from charging market-clearing prices.
And yet, the Trump administration is proudly putting this ignorance into practice.
When, oh when, will Trumpians finally realize that their hero is as economically illiterate – and as contemptuous of Americans’ economic liberties and property rights – as are any of the many Democratic Socialists who they are convinced their hero is protecting us from?
