Does Price Gouging Cause Inflation?

Who or what caused the jump in inflation from the past few years? There is no shortage of alleged culprits, and one popular theory is that it’s been driven by exploitative prices at the grocery store (aka, price gouging). Caleb and Liz discuss the role of price gouging, and how much blame (or not) it deserves. Shownotes Corporate Profits Contributed a Lot to Inflation in 2021 but Little in 2022—A Pattern Seen in Past Economic Recoveries [KC Fed] Tight Labor Markets Have Been a Key Contributor to High Food Inflation [KC Fed] Are Markups Driving the Ups and Downs of Inflation? [SF Fed] Are greedy companies to blame for grocery inflation? We looked at the data [NPR] What is ‘price gouging’ and why is VP Harris proposing to ban it? [AP] Harris Plans to Ban Grocery ‘Price Gouging.’ What Does the Evidence Say? [NYT]