Ammon News - Kamala Harris’ price gouging policy has been criticised by economists and analysts, who say it is an uncompetitive proposal that could end up hurting, and not helping, US consumers.

Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, announced the policy last week as part of a raft of populist proposals which included a US$6,000-a-year tax credit for families with newborn children and a US$10,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers.

If elected president, Harris would work with Congress to advance “the first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries,” her campaign said in a statement.

The proposals would look to set “clear rules of the road” to stop big corporations from running up “excessive” profits on food and groceries, and beef up state and federal regulatory powers to penalise rule breakers.

While popular with the Democratic base, the price gouging plans elicited a fierce reaction from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who is running against Harris in November’s elections.

“Kamala will implement Soviet style price controls,” he wrote in a social media post a day after the proposals were published.

Supporters of the policy say it has been mischaracterised and misunderstood.

“When there is more concentration in an industry, we have seen much greater increases in the profit margins,” US Senator Elizabeth Warren said in an interview with CNBC on Friday (Aug 23).

The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment. But several US media organisations, including the Washington Post, reported that the Harris campaign sees the policy as an attempt to elevate existing state level rules on price gouging to the federal level.

The Business Times