The Fed's Response to Corporate Profits

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

The Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates to try and slow inflation down. If this is a new set of circumstances causing inflation, does the Fed need a new response? I think it would be really, really hard for the Fed with its current mandate to take something like corporate profits into account. There are other types of policymakers who are starting to cast a much more critical eye on this type of activity.

Inflation happens for a lot of reasons that can be hard for even economists to fully grasp. But — as we learned this spring in an episode we’re rerunning today — there’s also a more straightforward reason prices keep going up: greedy corporations are using inflation as an excuse to jack up prices.

This episode was produced by Miles Bryan, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey, and hosted by Noel King.

Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained

Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices