The Romanian authorities think
of trying again a so called economic instrument they unsuccessfully used
in the communist period: price controls by the state. Beyond the fact that
the economic ideas on which such a measure is based are wrong (the erroneous
theory which says costs determine prices, or the one which considers the
intermediary or the speculator as cost raisers harming the final consumer)
and that the fixing of prices by the authorities violates the private property
of peaceful exchangers (therefore being unjust and, let us also say, unconstitutional),
price controls can only lead to a reduction of the quantity of agricultural
products offered on the markets and at the same time to the development
of black markets, the latter trying to remediate – with higher costs – the
created situation. Not to speak of the new pretexts for state intervention
to fix undesired consequences.