It’s not a good sign when the first proposal from a Presidential candidate is to institute selective mandatory price controls on essential consumer items.Anyone with a sense of basic economics recognizes that widespread inflation is a consequence of government fiscal and monetary policy in a competitive market environment. What is meant by the pejorative term “price gouging”?Is it maximizing profit on indispensable, must-have everyday products like milk, toilet paper and fuel? How about recovering exhaustive research costs of a single-source lifesaving pharmaceutical?If something is priced higher than the market will bear, few will choose to buy, and it remains in stock. If it’s merely a product that costs more this year than last, are the causative factors raw materials, labor, transportation or greed? Who bears the brunt of an imposed cap of say $2.50 a gallon on regular gasoline – the well driller, crude producer, pipeline transporter, product refiner, delivery trucker, or local retailer?Costs for all vary by region, and lowered margins reduce the incentive and ability to reinvest in an essential business.Who in the food chain takes the profitability hit from imposed price controls – fertilizer producer, farmer, wholesaler, trucker or retailer?How can such controls be equitably imposed? Can we afford to have a sophomoric President when it comes to economic understanding? Phil Osifer