Greedflation: Corporate Profits Are the Driver of High Prices

While there are lots of things on voters’ minds this fall, inflation and the economy consistently rank as top concerns for the electorate.

Depending on who’s doing the talking, inflation can be blamed on President Joe Biden or on his predecessor, Donald Trump. But one—and perhaps the greatest—driver of higher prices lies under the radar: corporate profits.

2Companies providing goods and services have historically raised prices when their own costs, like raw materials and labor, go up. But no more. The surge in profits since 2020 has been fueled in part by corporations getting greedier and expanding profit margins above what they were in the past—at consumers’ expense.

The big bonus kicked off when the global pandemic produced supply chain bottlenecks, meaning delays and increased costs of production, which led to price increases that were justifiable. But when the bottlenecks eased in 2023, production costs receded and prices should concomitantly have been reduced. No such luck for consumers.

Corporations have continued to use the cover of supply chain issues and broader inflation to hike prices more than their input costs justify—meaning jacked-up profits beyond what used to be normal.