Wednesday, March 27, 1974
However, he ruled out any general price controls and bulk
"We have seen
buying arrangements for the efficiency of such measures.
-
the effect of such measures elsewhere the end result is always confusion
and distortion in the market and, furthermore, at a huge cost to public fund."
Profiteering
Mr. Haddon-Cave spoke at length on inflation and profiteering
but
and concluded that profiteering was not as widespread as some would
imagine. Neither did he believe that its total elimination would make
"any very great difference to the rate at which prices are rising,"
the fact that 'profiteering' does exist at all "is a cause for considerable
anger and frustration."
Or
People tended to be more aware of 'profiteering' in a situation
of rapidly rising prices, he said, but profiteering was difficult to define.
His own interpretation was that 'profiteering' could unambiguously
occur in situations where either there is a degree of monopoly power,
consumers are unable to effectively exercise their combined influence on
prices as a result of some failure in the market information process.
"In the first situation, the government has a clear obligation
to redress the balance as it were, in favour of the consumer if the
!]
government itself has been instrumental in providing any body of persons
with the potential power to manipulate prices or supplies to their own
advantage."
Where there