And here is some current events analysis from ARI

(Link below and another to the right)

Dear Editor:

Tommy Thompson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services was wrong to exhort the 50 state-attorneys general to
zealously prosecute "immoral price gougers" of limited flu
vaccines.

Mr. Thompson's exhortations violate a fundamental moral
principle as well as an economic one. Morally, an individual has the
right to ask any price he wants for a good or service he owns--and a
buyer has an equal right to refuse that price. In a truly free
society, the government is not granted the power to dictate to sellers
and buyers the terms of a sale. Such power is found in dictatorships,
not in nations that respect individual rights.

When prices are free to rise, producers in a capitalist economy are
motivated to create a greater supply. Since they can now make more
money from sales of the product, it is in their self-interest to get
more of it to market. On the other hand, restricting prices of a good
not only violates the rights of sellers and buyers, it inevitably
leads to shortages of the particular good "protected" by
the government's policy.

Dr. Andrew Bernstein
Ayn Rand Institute

2121 Alton Parkway #250, Irvine CA, 92606
Home Tel: (845) 265-9593
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