Retail earnings data released on Nov. 13 confirm what families have been saying for months: prices may have stopped rising, but the pain of the last four years still hits households every day.
According to Charles Schwab’s Q3 Retail Earnings Preview, major retailers are finally seeing some stabilization in prices. A few categories have even begun to drop.
Yet shoppers remain sour, cautious, and stretched thin. They are trading down, buying less, and steering clear of anything that isn’t essential. The so-called “good news” is colliding with a lived reality that still feels tough. After years of Biden-era inflation and skyrocketing interest rates, families are not imagining the squeeze; they are living it. The price reset of the last administration never went away. In fact, when prices rose by 21% during former President Joe Biden’s four years, they remained at that level. Many do not realize that there is a hidden permanent loss in purchasing power. With inflation rates at lower levels, prices are still increasing, perhaps 2% on top of Biden’s 21%.
This disconnect between the macro statistics and the kitchen table is now fueling what politicians have branded an “affordability crisis.” But instead of addressing the real structural problems, such as the consolidation of giant corporations and the surge in basic living costs, the political class has latched on to a new fad: government price dictates.
That momentum exploded after Zohran Mamdani’s win in the New York City mayoral race. Mamdani ran on a platform of capping rents, credit-card rates, and utilities — of treating every high price as “evidence” of corporate villainy. His message was that Washington or City Hall should simply order companies to lower their prices. Everything the Left did in the past jacked up prices, from spending too much to the Green Energy policies that drove up gasoline as well as manufacturing and fertilizer, which then hit food prices. It printed the money and now claims it will command price drops. Wow. That is a command economy.
Democrats immediately jumped on board. National leaders revived plans for a federal price-gouging law, began floating nationwide rent caps, and pushed to expand the Federal Trade Commission’s authority to punish companies for charging “unfair” prices. Governors and mayors are now talking freely about using the power of their offices to set the price of groceries, energy, and even car repair rates.
This is not true economics. It is political theater. Price dictates have been tried in every era and every country, and they have failed without exception.
What is particularly troubling is that some Republicans, sensing voter frustration, have begun drifting toward the same central planning trap.
In several states, Republican legislators have begun championing “anti–price gouging” bills nearly identical to Democratic versions — proposals that empower state bureaucrats to police “excessive” price increases during vaguely defined economic emergencies. These laws are politically popular because they sound tough on corporations, but the result is always the same: shortages, reduced supply, and small businesses punished for trying to survive. It is Mamdani-style economics dressed up in red-state packaging.
And this isn’t the only example. A small handful of other Republicans are embracing a bill that would establish federally controlled credit card interest rates. This may sound like protection for consumers, but it would inevitably cut off access to credit for families with imperfect credit histories.
Recent research from former Trump economic adviser Steve Moore shows exactly what happens when politicians impose credit caps. After Illinois capped interest rates in 2021, subprime borrowers saw a 38% collapse in loan availability and reported worsening financial conditions, including late bill payments, car repairs they couldn’t afford, and being forced to borrow from family to stay afloat.
Price control policies may win some applause at press conferences, but it is only a matter of time before they leave struggling Americans with fewer options, not more. And make no mistake: that time will be the short-term, not the medium or long-term. The politicians who embrace these policies will be the ones to face the political fallout.
There is no reason for Republicans to panic when their economic playbook is already starting to bear fruit.
Over the past year, the new administration has taken a very different approach from the Biden era. Taxes have been lowered for the middle class, domestic energy production has been unleashed, manufacturing has begun returning to American soil, and unnecessary regulatory obstacles have been peeled away. As a result, investment is flowing, wages are rising, and prices are finally stabilizing after years of punishment. Next, prices will begin to stabilize as productivity increases with the trillions of new domestic capital investments.
So yes, the affordability crisis is real; the November retail data prove it, as explained above. But the worst thing Republicans in Washington can do now is panic and grab for quick political fixes that end up strangling the very investment and competition needed to bring costs down for good. In other words, patience, education, and better messaging, for a very short while, will prove to be a virtue.
America is on the verge of a genuine comeback. But if Republicans start chasing easy applause instead of lasting economic renewal, they could undo the progress the country has fought so hard to reclaim. That would hurt the president’s legacy, weaken the GOP’s electoral showing in next year’s midterm elections, and set the conservative cause back years.
The GOP is the party of intellect, restraint, and maturity. Its leaders must choose grit over gimmicks and keep the country on the straight and narrow path of becoming great and affordable again.
Dr. Dave Brat is a Ph.D. economist and a former member of Congress from Virginia. He chaired the Small Business Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access.
