Is It Possible to Determine What Part of the Price Increases That Consumers Are Facing Are a Conversion of Corporate Profits?

Judging by the amount of downloads for this episode, we’d say it was our listeners’ favorite from the past year. “Did Corporate Greed Break the Supply Chain?” with Rakeen Mabud from the Groundwork Collaborative exposes how the supply chain was actually designed: not for reliably getting goods to people, but for maximizing profit. Unfortunately, that’s something many Americans came to realize in 2022 as prices skyrocketed and store shelves were left empty.

This episode originally aired on March 22, 2022.

Rakeen Mabud is the Chief Economist and Managing Director of Policy and Research at the Groundwork Collaborative.

Twitter: @rakeen_mabud

How We Broke the Supply Chain https://prospect.org/economy/how-we-broke-the-supply-chain-intro/

Corporations Raise Prices as Consumers Spend ‘With a Vengeance’

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/27/business/economy/price-increases-inflation.html

Opinion: Larry Summers Shares the Blame for Inflation https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/opinion/larry-summers-inflation.html

Inflation causing financial strain for nearly half of U.S. households, poll finds

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/12/02/inflation-gallup-financial-hardship/

Stock Buybacks Beat Capital Spending for Many Big Companies

https://www.wsj.com/articles/stock-buybacks-beat-capital-spending-for-many-big-companies-11631611802

The stock market is punishing Walmart and Target for keeping costs low while the rest of the corporate sector prioritizes profits and makes inflation worse

https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-target-keep-prices-low-corporations-prioritize-profits-inflation-worse-2021-11

Website: https://pitchforkeconomics.com/

Twitter: @PitchforkEcon

Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics

Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer