One of my colleagues at Towson came by my office last week to show me pictures of his trip to Russia in the mid 1980s. I wish I could post a copy of one of his picture of a butcher shop with no meat. Last week may have signaled a returned to the Soviet style, as the leading supermarkets placed price controls on food staples such as bread, cheese, milk and eggs (see article here).
A similar policy was adopted this year in Zimbabwe (see link here), which has not worked very well. As seen in this article shelves are empty and the government is arresting its citizens for selling goods at a price where they can stay open. These price controls do not appear to have stopped inflation, as one Zimbabwean put it a banana costs more than my house.
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