Price-gouging is illegal in 37 US states. Let’s make it 50 | Bob Casey

Using inflation as cover, companies have raised prices of everyday household items to rake in record profits at the expense of American families

Over the past few years, Erin Wiggle has approached every trip to the grocery store with a sense of dread. During each visit, the retired army veteran, small business owner and mother from Worcester Township, Pennsylvania, has seen her budget stretched thinner and thinner as prices keep ratcheting up for the goods her family relies on. Erin's burden has grown heavier despite pandemic-related supply chain issues subsiding, and she has a growing sense that the companies making the products she needs are padding their profits at the expense of her family.

Erin is right. Under the cover of inflation, companies have raised the prices of everyday household items to rake in record profits at the expense of American families. As my investigation into what I've called greedflation" shows, from mid-2020 to mid-2022, corporate profits rose by 75% - five times as fast as inflation. In fact, corporate profits jumped so much that they played a major role in causing inflation - according to the Federal Reserve, corporate profits accounted for all the inflation from July 2020 through July 2021 and 41% of all inflation from July 2020 through July 2022.