Here's several commentaries that explain well why the phenomenon called "price gouging" is a good thing, and does not desearve its popular moniker:
From Walter Williams:
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/walterwilliams/ww20050914.shtml
From Larry Elder:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46335
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Economist Walter Williams explains here how "anti-price gouging" laws led to all those stranded, out-of-gas cars on the highway leading out of Houston. If the human beings who owned the gas stations in Houston had the FREEDOM to raise their prices commensurate with the evacuation order, people would have filled their cars with just enough gas to get out of town, instead of every car fill-up until the gas stations ran out of gas. Willaims doesn't mention that at the higher ("gouged") prices, suppliers would have had an incentive to take special actions to replenish the gas stations during the evacuation. Thanks to the "anti-gouging" laws, the humans who owned the stations had to sell their gas at pre-evacuation prices until they ran out of their supply, and then they hung up their sign: "Good news! We have priced our gas at the pre-evacuation fantasy price! Bad news! We are out of gas! We hope you feel good about not being gouged! Have fun stranded on the highway!"
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/walterwilliams/2005/09/28/158547.html
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