Saving Consumers from Lower Prices

By Richard W. Rahn

This article appeared in Washington Times on August 20, 2013.

Why does the Obama administration claim it wants you to pay less for your airline ticket, but more for the shrimp you buy? One reason the economy keeps stumbling along is that businessmen, consumers and taxpayers are having a hard time planning because of endlessly inconsistent and often lawless policy directives from the Obama White House. On the same day last week, the administration announced that it was seeking to block the proposed American Airlines-US Airways merger, allegedly to protect consumers against higher prices — and that it might impose higher duties (taxes) on shrimp from foreign competitors to protect U.S. shrimpers, meaning that all who eat shrimp will have to pay more.

The Justice Department, under the leadership of ethically and intellectually challenged Eric H. Holder Jr., came up with a study that concluded that airline ticket prices would be higher and service worse if American Airlines and US Airways merged. The conclusion was immediately challenged by affected parties (the companies and the unions) and many transportation economists. I do not know, as a frequent flier, whether I will be better off or worse off with the proposed merger. I do know, however, that the folks at the Justice Department also do not know, but trying to block the merger massages their egos and their lust for power……To Read More….