Viktor Orbán is a hero to American national conservatives. So when in January 2022 the Hungarian Prime Minister announced he would supplement price caps on fuel and mortgage rates by mandating that sugar, flour, sunflower oil, chicken breasts, pork legs, and certain milk products be sold to consumers at lower October 2021 prices, some of this anti–free market cohort celebrated his decisive action to "protect families" from inflation. "But, but, but, what would Milton Friedman say!" tweeted Compact magazine editor Sohrab Ahmari, mocking advocates of market economics. This was "the party of the state for the win." Well, we know what Friedman would have said: These price controls will not work as you intend. Limited to a small range of goods, they won't dampen even measured inflation rates. They cannot suppress actual inflationary pressure, which is determined by the intersection of total spending and output. Even if almost all prices were controlled, as in the U.S. during World War II, a lower measured inflation would ill- reflect the reduced quality and product re-formulations that sellers would reach for to circumvent price controls. When controls are removed, the official price level would surge again anyway.
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