Obama economist trashes Kamala Harris' price control plan: 'This is not sensible policy'
'The biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality,' Jason Furman said
By Kristine Parks Fox News
Published August 16, 2024 3:47pm EDT
A Harvard economist who worked in President Obama's administration ripped Vice President Kamala Harris' price control plan to curb inflation as not based in "reality."
"This is not sensible policy, and I think the biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality," Jason Furman told The New York Times in a report published Friday. "There’s no upside here, and there is some downside."
The Harris campaign announced on Wednesday she would institute a federal price-fixing plan for corporations, as president, to stop "big corporations" from taking advantage of consumers.
"There’s a big difference between fair pricing in competitive markets and excessive prices unrelated to the costs of doing business," the Harris campaign said in a statement. "Americans can see that difference in their grocery bills."
The proposal would give authority to the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to impose harsh penalties on companies for setting excessively high prices.
However, some economists and financial experts have cast doubt on Harris' plan, arguing that corporations don't play a huge role in rising grocery prices.
Furman, the former National Economic Council chair under Obama, told the Times that policies like Harris' are risky because they discourage new businesses from joining the market to meet consumer demand.
Other economists disagreed and praised Harris' proposal to the Times.
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