There are two main challenges to combating price gouging. One is that most of our laws (federal, state and municipal) do not provide leaders sufficiently broad authority to counter the problem. Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York, who has promised to make living in the city more affordable, is fortunate: New York City is among the rare places where the law robustly authorizes the policing of “unconscionable trade practices.” That includes price gouging, defined as “a gross disparity between the value received by a consumer and the price paid, to the consumer’s detriment.”