Jeff Jacoby has a nifty column on so-called price gouging. An excerpt:

What is it about the price of gasoline that turns seemingly normal politicians into barking economic demagogues?

When Jill puts her house on the market for $450,000 -- triple what she paid 10 years ago, but the going price in her neighborhood today -- the politicos understand that the 200 percent markup is the result of supply and demand in the real estate market. Senators don't call press conferences to denounce Jill as a profiteer. Attorneys general don't threaten to prosecute her. Governors don't compare her to looters.

But when Joe's service station ups the price of gasoline by $1 a gallon, the political world freaks out. Never mind that a Category 4 hurricane has devastated oil production throughout the Gulf Coast, depleting the nation's already strained refining capacity by 2 million barrels a day and driving up the price Joe's wholesaler is now charging him. For some reason, politicians forget everything they learned in Economics 101, and rush to savage Joe for "gouging" his customers.

As good as Jacoby's column and lots of excellent posts on familiar blogs are, I think there is something that no one has explicitly stated. Suppose that so-called price gouging really is evil (I don't really believe this of course--it's just a hypothetical), there is still a reason to defend people's right to engage in it--the sanctity of private property, freedom of contract, freedom of association, etc. Even if I think the station owner near Atlanta who tried to get nearly $6 per gallon is a jerk of the highest order, I defend his right to do so without a bumpkin governor or publicity seeking attorney general hectoring him. And, needless to say, I'll be exercising my right to shop elsewhere.

ADDENDA:

1. Christopher Westley compares FEMA to Enron.

2. John Tierney (how'd this guy get hired by the NYT?) sorts out the blame--hint much resides with the grandstanding, finger-pointing clowns of Capitol Hill.