A recent CBS News poll found that 75% of Democrats, 62% of independents and 54% of Republicans support price controls, or government-imposed limits on how much a particular good can cost.

Price controls are an old, bad idea that resurfaces whenever inflation spikes and Americans start looking for someone to blame. Their renewed popularity is evidence that free marketeers are losing the argument. Voters in both parties, independents included, have absorbed the logic of economic populism. They're winning on message, and free marketeers need a new approach to fight back.

Price controls barely registered in political debate through the 2010s, a decade of low inflation. Post-pandemic price spikes dragged the idea back into the mainstream, first pushed by progressive economists, now embraced by candidates on both sides of the aisle looking to court voters.

Mamdani and Trump are riding this bad idea to victory

Populists are riding these ideas to victory. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's “freeze the rent” scheme is one version. President Donald Trump's is another: Amid his push to address the "affordability crisis," he's proposed capping credit card interest rates at 10%.

None of this popularity is surprising. Who doesn't want cheaper stuff? The trouble is that markets don't hand........

© USA TODAY