During a House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday, United States Congresswoman Katie Porter (D-California) grilled Mike Konczal, the director of Macroeconomic Analysis at the Roosevelt Institute, over the primary cause of inflation in the post-COVID-19 economy.
Equipped with one of her easy-to-read, data-filled posters, Porter got Konczal to admit that surging corporate profits are forcing American consumers to pay significantly more for goods and services.
“According to this chart, what is the biggest driver of inflation during the pandemic? The blue – the dark blue is the recent period,” Porter pointed out.
“It would be corporate profits,” Konczal confirmed.
“And what is that percentage?” Porter asked.
“It is 54 percent,” Konczal replied, “and that number does stay that level of high if you update that number to more recent numbers as well.”
Porter asked if that meant that “over half of the increased prices people are paying are coming from increases in corporate profits?”
Konczal said that it did and that “the unit price index is reflected in corporate profits as opposed to other costs.”
Porter questioned Konczal, “how […]
And the corporate thieves get richer, as usual.
This article is not very good, although the points made are important to consider. The data will show that in areas of the economy where there is a higher concentration of ownership (think pharmacy, rental stock in some geographic areas, hedge fund dominated specialities such as ED physician practices, Dental practices, etc…), inflation is much worst due to lack of competition. This is due to weak or non enforced anti-trust laws. This concentration of ownership has been occurring over the past 40 years and gets little coverage in the press.