Featured Scholars: Russ Roberts, Richard Epstein, Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, Lee Ohanian, John Cochrane, Daniel Heil"Prices are a fact of life, and so is complaining about them. You probably prefer lower prices on just about everything, but especially when buying a house or paying for college, and you wish for higher prices when it comes time to sell that house or negotiate your salary. Complaints aside, however, prices are actually the key to widespread prosperity.
"Prices contain vital information. They show us how scarce resources are. They indicate what consumers want. Entrepreneurs and innovators rely on prices to decide what to make and how to make it. But not all prices are meaningful. Too often, governments interfere. In an attempt to protect consumers, politicians mandate lower prices. Other times, governments push prices up to benefit certain industries. These efforts might be well intentioned, but they distort the information that prices convey and tend to make us poorer.
"Why are prices so important, and what happens when policy makers forget this lesson?"
