August 10, 2022
Rising inflation has everyone worried. Rightly so. But there is an echo chamber convincing policy makers, much of the press and the public that corporate greed is solely to blame. We’ve always known corporations care far more about profits than they do about people, but blaming the current situation on corporate greed alone misses the bigger picture.
The Fed forcing millions of low-wage workers out of work is not a solution, but enforcing anti-trust regulation and breaking up monopolies is. CEPR Co-Director Eileen Appelbaum explains how market consolidation is one of the drivers of dysfunction that may express itself in empty shelves and shortages of essential goods or take the form of rapidly rising prices.
The baby formula shortage is a clear example of how lax anti-trust regulation, market monopolization, and extreme profit seeking make a formula for disaster.
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing failures of a rigged economic system.
With your support, CEPR can keep doing this important research to educate policymakers and the press. It’s about more than just responding to the talking heads; it’s about accurately diagnosing the root causes of our economic problems and finding ways to solve them.
