It seems that no matter what else is going on in the nation or the world, the single issue that people care most about is the economy and how it affects them personally. I suppose this is natural, but frankly if I’m paying a few more dollars for my weekly groceries or having to cut back on some things is of far less importance to me than things like an entire nation (Ukraine) fighting for its very life, or democracy and human rights being flushed down the toilet as will happen here in the U.S. if a certain madman somehow walks away with a win on November 5th.
The U.S. economy overall is doing quite well … a significant number of new jobs have been added each month and unemployment is at the lowest level it has been in years. But it’s that sticker shock at the grocery checkout that bothers people most, and inflation is still with us as the Consumer Price Index indicated at the end of March, with prices up 3.2% over the previous month. So … who to blame? Far too many people will point their fingers in the wrong direction, blaming President Biden and his policies. Robert Reich does a nice job of explaining the truth of the matter … and please do take 5 minutes to watch the video!
WHY ARE WE STILL SUFFERING INFLATION? MONOPOLY POWER!
By Robert Reich
10 April 2024
We learned today that the Consumer Price Index climbed 3.5 percent in March from a year earlier, up from 3.2 percent in February, and faster than most economists anticipated.
This poses a conundrum for central bankers who have made it clear that they want to see further evidence that inflation is cooling before they cut interest rates.
The Fed’s high interest rates haven’t pushed America to the brink of a recession, fortunately, but they haven’t slowed inflation as much as policymakers had hoped.
The question is whether Fed officials can cut interest rates at all this year.
President Biden acknowledged today that “prices are still too high for housing and groceries”, and said he was “calling on corporations, including grocery retailers, to use record profits to reduce prices.”
What’s Biden getting at?
Corporations have enough monopoly power to keep prices high.
I explain in this new video I did with my talented colleagues at Inequality Media. Please share!
Corporate profits reached a record high in the fourth quarter of last year.
(Note that many corporations are also shrinking the size of the products you’re buying without lowering their prices — a variant of the same thing.)
This is one of the biggest reasons the American public is not yet crediting Biden with a great economy. Most people still aren’t feeling it.
In 2023, PepsiCo’s chief financial officer said that even though inflation was dropping, its prices would not be. Pepsi hiked its prices by double digits and announced plans to keep them high in 2024.
If Pepsi were challenged by tougher competition, consumers would just buy something cheaper. But PepsiCo’s only major soda competitor is Coca-Cola, which — surprise, surprise — announced similar price hikes at about the same time as Pepsi and has also kept its prices high.
The CEO of Coca-Cola claimed that the company had “earned the right” to push price hikes because its sodas are popular.
Popular? The only thing that’s popular these days seems to be corporate price gouging.
Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News 
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