Bloquer les prix : 1 700 ans d’essais, ça marche ? 💸 — Transcript

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1. 0:00Is price fixing a good idea? We've been
2. 0:03trying it for 1,700 years, even today.
3. 0:06Here is why most economists think it's a
4. 0:07bad idea that seems good.
5. 0:10Back to 301. For decades, Rome had been
6. 0:12minting more and more coins to pay its
7. 0:14soldiers. As a result, prices
8. 0:16skyrocketed. Emperor Diocletian blamed
9. 0:18the greed of merchants. So, he set a
10. 0:20maximum price for over 1,000 products
11. 0:22and services. Wheat, a teacher's salary
12. 0:24, or even the price of a lion. Yes,
13. 0:26because back then, you could just buy a
14. 0:28lion. Anyone selling for more risked
15. 0:30death, and so did the buyer. As a result
16. 0:32, no one sold their products anymore.
17. 0:34The law was eventually abandoned. And in
18. 0:36fact, it's not hard to understand. If
19. 0:38the imposed price is lower than the cost
20. 0:39to produce, the seller loses money. So,
21. 0:42they stop selling and shortages set in.
22. 0:44Nearly 1,500 years later, in
23. 0:46revolutionary France, bread was too
24. 0:48expensive.
25. 0:49The people of Paris demanded a cap, and
26. 0:51in 1793, the Convention voted to freeze
27. 0:53prices on basic necessities.
28. 0:56Result: shortages, and the state had to
29. 0:58send soldiers to requisition grain. But
30. 1:00the Convention also capped wages. Yeah,
31. 1:02well, you don't need to be an expert to
32. 1:03know that's not a good idea. Wages
33. 1:05dropped for many workers. In the end,
34. 1:07the measure was abandoned a year later.
35. 1:10In 1971, it was the United States 'turn
36. 1:12. President Nixon froze all prices and
37. 1:15wages for 90 days to fight inflation.
38. 1:17The measure was very popular and at
39. 1:19first, well, it worked. Inflation slowed
40. 1:21down, so the measure was extended. Well
41. 1:23, and now you're starting to get it,
42. 1:25shortages arrived. Since it was no
43. 1:27longer profitable to produce, farmers
44. 1:28went as far as drowning chicks rather
45. 1:30than selling at a loss. And for gasoline
46. 1:32, the controls lasted until 1981.
47. 1:35Americans would line up for hours at gas
48. 1:37stations. So the verdict among
49. 1:39economists is a near consensus.
50. 1:41In the short term, price fixing works,
51. 1:43but in the medium to long term, it
52. 1:45creates shortages. Except under one
53. 1:47condition. In 2022, with the war in
54. 1:49Ukraine, energy costs soared. France
55. 1:51limited the rise in electricity prices
56. 1:53and it worked. Inflation was contained
57. 1:55without shortages. The reason is that
58. 1:57the state paid the difference to the
59. 1:58suppliers. They kept selling since it
60. 2:00remained profitable, but the state paid
61. 2:0236 billion euros. In short, when you cap
62. 2:04prices, someone always pays the
63. 2:06difference, whether it's the seller, the
64. 2:08customer waiting in line, or the state.
65. 2:10Mr.