Price freezes in the economic program of the New Popular Front: a fivefold absurd idea

The first measure to appear in the economic program of the Nouveau Front Populaire was a freeze on the prices of basic necessities such as food, energy and fuel. Supposed to increase household purchasing power, this measure was actually absurd, for five reasons:

• Many food prices are already falling (or are likely to fall soon), so blocking prices means preventing them from falling (and a price cap, if that's what we're talking about, would bring only very small gains in purchasing power on food at best).
• Price freezes are likely to lead to shortages, unless they are financed by the state, in which case they would be very costly for the public purse.
• Freezing prices reduces the incentive to increase production, and thus to tackle the root causes of price rises.
• Wealthy households benefit more than modest ones from the price freeze, since they spend more than the latter. Targeted measures to support purchasing power would be far preferable.
• Ecologically, it makes sense to let energy and fuel prices rise to encourage households to reduce their consumption.