Report Claims Inflation Woes Driven Largely By Corporate Greed

The paper boosts the controversial progressive argument that corporations are squeezing American households just because they can.

A new report from a progressive think tank argues that Americans’ recent inflation woes were driven by companies that kept their prices high even as costs have come down in recent months, in order to increase their profit margins.

The Groundwork Collaborative’s report, first reported by The Guardian, says that corporate profits are behind 53% of inflation over the second and third quarters of 2023.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report’s authors noted, “virtually every company in every industry faced rising costs to make products and stock shelves.” The Ukraine war also worsened energy costs and hit supply chains.

But as these production strains have eased, the report said, companies across the economy have opted against lowering prices for consumers.

“What we saw over and over again, listening to the earnings calls and when we looked at the macroeconomic data, is that companies were passing along their higher prices and they were going for more,” Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, told MSNBC’s Ari Melber. She said companies are taking advantage of customers who are “expecting to pay a little more” in the current economy.