Xi Jinping’s futile war on price wars

When firms raise prices, “gouging” their customers, many governments complain. Some cannot resist intervening. But in today’s China, the opposite is happening. In May the state reprimanded carmakers not for raising prices, but for cutting them. “There are no winners in this price war,” it said, blithely ignoring the happy customers who can now buy a zippy electric car for less than $8,000.