I've come to associate the concept of price controls as a form of subtle moral evil, in that a ruler decrees a value for a good that does not accurately match the real value for that good.

So it has to distort the truth.

I think, in an indirect way, it is lying?

While I think all value is subjective (as a good has different utility for every individual),  there is still a kind of market truth.

If money could not be manipulated, then the going price of a thing would accurately reflect its place in a society's hierarchy of value