PRICE CEILING: A legally established maximum price. The government is occasionally inclined to keep the price of one good or another from rising too high. Examples include apartments, gasoline, and natural gas. While the goal is invariably a noble one--like keeping stuff affordable for poor people--a price ceiling often does more harm than good. First, it usually creates a shortage, meaning that many of the buyers who being protected against high prices, can't even buy the good. Second, as a consequence of this shortage, a price ceiling is likely to generate a black market where the good is sold illegally above the price ceiling.

     See also | market | price | regulation | shortage | black market | price floor |

PRICE CEILING, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2017. [Accessed: October 22, 2017].

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The time lag that occurs between the implementation of a government policy designed to correct an economic problem and the complete impact of the policy. The impact lag is based on the multiplier process and can last up to a year or two or even longer. This "outside lag" is one of four policy lags associated with monetary and fiscal policy. The other three "inside lags" are recognition lag, decision lag, and implementation lag. All four policy lags can reduce the effectiveness of business-cycle stabilization policies and can even destabilize the economy.

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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time strolling around a discount warehouse buying club wanting to buy either a cross-cut paper shredder or a birthday greeting card for your father. Be on the lookout for telephone calls from long-lost relatives.
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