Billionaire investor Mark Cuban, who has been speaking out as a surrogate for Democrat nominee Kamala Harris, acknowledged that the 40-year highs in inflation are attributable to the Biden administration's addition of economic stimulus to supply constraints.
In an interview with CNBC's Joe Kernan Thursday morning, Cuban insisted that the host was "misrepresenting" what Harris has said when she called for an end to price gouging in her advertising.
"Do you think 'supermarket gouging' had anything to do with…" Kernan started.
"No, of course not. No. No."
"You think it was putting too much stimulus on top of supply constraints," Kernan said.
"Yeah, Biden…" Cuban started again.
"Then it just looks to me like they're not being truthful with this and they're trying to deflect blame to corporations because of their record," Kernan replied, but Cuban disagreed.
He told Kernan that there is "always going to be another hurricane, another tornado, another natural disaster," and that 37 states already have laws that prevent price gouging.
"Welp, there goes Cuban's hopes of being SEC Commissioner," the Trump campaign said in response.
Harris has said that she plans to work with Congress on "rules of the road" for price-setting, and to authorize the Federal Trade Commission and states to punish "bad actors."
Currently, 37 states and the District of Columbia have laws that prevent companies from raising prices on goods and services under specified, often emergency conditions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, reports NBC News.
The laws are in both liberal and conservative states, and while most only are used in emergency declarations, in some states, like Michigan, the laws are always in effect.
They ban price increases for essentials such as water, fuel, medicine, or other products.
But some of the bans cover other goods, or even all consumer purchases to keep sellers from taking advantage of spikes of demand or shortages, such as during the COVID pandemic.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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