Price controls and market distortions over textbooks?

H.R. 3512, or the "College Textbook Affordability and Transparency Act of 2007" is a nice looking bill on the surface. It requires publishers to end their schema of bundling books with CD-ROMs and online extras and would force them to sell an unbundled version of the book, all because America's college students and their families are paying a real premium for textbooks. It comes fully backed by the New York Times. And it seems to address a necessary social role -- solving the "runaway" textbook racket imposed on America's middle and upper-middle classes by the publishing racket.

So why am I so uncomfortable? First, the editorial board at our nation's paper of record doesn't actually seem to understand much about the textbook market. Yes, the new editions are expensive and yes, publishers do add pricey add-ons, but students themselves are the ones buying the new edition. I've taken plenty of classes using the older version of textbooks and the information is almost completely the same -- just the page numbers and layout of the book are different. If students were more willing to use older editions, publishers would be forced to lower prices. But year after year, rosy-faced freshman arrive on campus, and convince their parents that they need the assigned, newest addition -- and they pay top dollar.

In any case, quasi-price controls for something as silly as the textbook market doesn't seem right. Do publishers really need Congress to regulate the way they market their product? It seems to me that the answer is that this is just shameless pandering in an important election season, with the economy rapidly turning sour. Let's hope this one never makes it into law.