greedflation

Echoes her colleague Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.): “The problem is not inflation. The problem is corporate greed.” Their evidence for the greedflation theory was that prices companies charge had risen faster than input costs, which meant (at least for a while) that profits were growing.

2022 June 14, Catherine Rampell, “Greed is dead. Long live greed!”, in Washington Post (subscription required)

In fact, evidence of ‘greedflation’ in food retail in Canada is weak at best. But prices in some food categories have behaved unreasonably in recent years, so we shouldn't think greedflation doesn't exist.

2022 July 13, “Has ‘greedflation’ driven up Canadian food prices? Evidence of ‘greedflation’ is weak at best”, in Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal

The “greedflation” thesis is in part a reaction against another common explanation for inflation: that it is driven by fast-growing wages.

2023 July 6, ““Greedflation” is a nonsense idea”, in The Economist, →ISSN

If a company could manage to raise its price by a big percentage and have its volume go down by only a small percentage, it would increase its revenue, offsetting its higher costs. Some people called that profiteering or greedflation, but to Rines it was just good business.

2023 July 26, Peter Coy, “Companies Aren’t Eager to Cut Their Prices as Costs Fall”, in The New York Times, Peter Coy Newsletter