Seems to me there is too little information here to justify the vitriol. Basic supply and demand dictates that a market will experience sudden price increases when there are demand shocks. Over time those price may come down with an increase in supply, but without that supply increase prices will remain high if demand remains high. It's the market solution to the scarcity issue, but most people don't understand or refuse to accept that all goods are finite, hence they are scarce. To better understand these price increase you would need to know what happened to demand of the product, what happened to supply, how quickly is supply able to escalate with demand, and very importantly; what is the increase of marginal costs to produce at that supply level? When prices are restricted from rising during rushes you experience runs and ability to obtain an item is the simple result of who gets to the market first. If local stores were allowed to raise prices on, lets say toilet paper, then people would complain but there would be less hording since the prices would rise to keep product on the shelves. And as supply caught up to demand, these prices would come down. But this is all academic since it's much easier to hate capitalism then understand how it works or what the mechanics behind a particular issue is. So, Viva la revolucion!

What is the state investing? Break Even implies a cash out flow for an investment. A tax break is uncollected revenue. So at worst the state collects no new revenue, and has lost no money. What's the difference if the plant was never there?