Corporate greed, not wages, is behind inflation. It's time for price controls [View all]

The underlying economic problem is profit-price inflation. It’s caused by corporations raising their prices above their increasing costs.

Corporations are using those increasing costs – of materials, components and labor – as excuses to increase their prices even higher, resulting in bigger profits. This is why corporate profits are close to levels not seen in over half a century.

Corporations have the power to raise prices without losing customers because they face so little competition. Since the 1980s, two-thirds of all American industries have become more concentrated.

Why are grocery prices through the roof? Because just four companies control 85% of meat and poultry processing. Just one corporation sets the price for most of the nation’s seed corn. And two giant firms dominate consumer staples.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/25/inflation-price-controls-robert-reich