Inflation can come from business power --Fed. Res Chair. Powell

[June Zaccone]

"The Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, said that sometimes businesses are raising prices just “because they can.” He’s right. Companies have pricing power when consumers don’t have choice. Sometimes this is because demand for consumer staples like toilet paper, toothpaste and hamburger meat is relatively inelastic. If you need a box of diapers, you need a box of diapers. Other times pricing power comes from concentrated market power. In industries like meatpacking and shipping — in which giants have over 80 percent of market share at times — it’s easier to take big markups when there aren’t major competitors to undercut you."

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/opinion/us-companies-inflation.html

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June Zaccone
National Jobs for All Network
http://www.njfac.org