In Defence of Profiteering

Tim Harford has a great example of the valuable services performed by so-called profiteers here. Price gouging  communicates valuable information - it signals that there is a real and immediate scarcity. In this case customers whose needs are not immediate are deterred from buying petrol while customers who do really need petrol know that it is available. As Harford puts it:  'price-gouging is woefully undersupplied in this market' for political reasons because most retailers are terrified of being accused of profiteering.