It's the 86th birthday of the CCP...and things have changed a bit since they started running around the countryside killing landlords and promising revolution. Up in Gansu province, the municipal authorities have tried an old-fashioned way of dealing with inflation:

As the debate boils over rising prices of the favorite bowl of beef noodles in Lanzhou in Gansu province, municipal authorities insisted a price cap will stay.

But price controls announced June 26 that in "an ordinary grade restaurant," a large bowl of beef noodles cannot be sold for more than 2.5 yuan (HK$2.58), and no more than 2.3 yuan for a small bowl, has given rise to arguments on how far the government should interfere in commercial decisions...

The pricing move is not seen in a good light by top policy planners. The National Development and Reform Commission said Lanzhou's move is not in keeping with the "rules of the market economy."

A scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences remarked that the intervention was a "return to a planned economy."