Is Corporate Greed Causing Inflation? New Fed Report Disputes Biden's Claims

President Joe Biden has frequently attributed inflation to corporate greed. Is corporate price gouging the driving force behind inflation?

Details: A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco concluded that the inflation experienced over the past few years is not the result of corporate markups. The report stated, “markups have risen substantially in a few industries such as motor vehicles and petroleum. However, aggregate markups—which are more relevant for overall inflation—have generally remained flat, in line with previous economic recoveries over the past three decades. These patterns suggest that markup fluctuations have not been a main driver of the ups and downs of inflation during the post-pandemic recovery.”

Key Quote: CNN (Lean Left bias) quoted White House spokesperson Jeremy Edwards responding to the report by stating, “These markups should have reversed as we recovered from the pandemic—the fact that they haven’t means prices can come down if corporate profits come back to earth. President Biden has repeatedly called on large corporations to pass their record profits along to their customers by lowering prices. And he is taking on corporate rip-offs like hidden junk fees that costs families billions of dollars a year. The President will continue to call out corporate rip-offs and fight to keep money in Americans’ pockets.”

How the Media Covered It: Outlets across the spectrum concluded that the report undercuts claims made by the Biden Administration regarding corporate greed being the cause of inflation.