I Have a Heterosexual Crush on Walter Williams

His 1982 book, The State Against Blacks, along with Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom made me a libertarian. Now, Williams has a great column that explains price "gouging" in a way that even President Bush could understand. It's a must read for anyone who is tired of hearing people complain about price gouging in the wake of Katrina.

A brief excerpt:

Here's a which-is-better question for you. Suppose a hotel room rented for $79 a night prior to Hurricane Katrina's devastation. Based on that price, an evacuating family of four might rent two adjoining rooms. When they arrive at the hotel, they find the rooms rent for $200; they decide to make do with one room. In my book, that's wonderful. The family voluntarily opted to make a room available for another family who had to evacuate or whose home was destroyed. Demagogues will call this price-gouging, but I ask you, which is preferable: a room available at $200 or a room unavailable at $79? Rising prices get people to voluntarily economize on goods and services rendered scarcer by the disaster.