劃重點，prohibit a sudden spike in prices for scarce goods。個人覺得這個跟計劃經濟十萬八千裏。非要搞到生活必需品被人囤積起來奇貨可居的時候就好了麽。
Fighting inflation
The campaign aims to rein in price increases for everything from groceries to prescription drugs to homes.
Harris points to the market power of large corporations as a key cause of rapid price increases for essential goods, saying companies use their outsized role in a given market to raise prices without fear of a competitor offering a comparable product at a more affordable price. Consumers, the Harris campaign says, are left with nowhere to turn.
The grocery industry exemplifies the damage caused by mega corporations, according to the campaign. "Extreme consolidation in the food industry has led to higher prices that account for a large part of higher grocery bills," the campaign said in a statement on Friday.
Grocery store profit margins surged in 2021 and rose even higher two years later, even after price increases had begun to cool, a Federal Trade Commission study in March showed.
To control the price hikes, Harris proposed a federal ban on price gouging for food and groceries. While details remain limited, the plan could resemble price-gouging bans in place in 37 states, which prohibit a sudden spike in prices for scarce goods.
Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collective, in a statement on Friday echoed the Harris campaign's criticism of the broken market for groceries.
"Price gouging, price fixing, and just plain profiteering are rampant in the food and grocery sector," Owens said. "There is still more the government can do to reduce food and grocery concentration and stop the cheating that is costing families dearly."
Some economists, however, rejected the notion of corporate power as an important cause of inflation, saying a limit on price hikes could result in shortages of goods.
"Most of the inflation over the past few years has been caused by increases in costs," Steven Hamilton, a professor of economics at George Washington University, told ABC News. Hamilton acknowledged that price increases for some groceries may owe to corporate concentration, but said it doesn't stand as a primary cause of overall inflation.
"You have to be careful not to cherry pick," Hamilton said.
Michael Jones, an economics professor at the University of Cincinnati, said a government-imposed ceiling on prices could cause stores to run out of goods in times of scarcity.
"If there's a restriction on the prices that companies can charge for products, they simply won't supply them," Jones told ABC News.
