Supply chains, worker wages and the price of energy has been blamed for the current bout of high inflation. But central bankers around the world are starting to clue in to something consumers have been aware of for a while — corporations just aren’t afraid to raise their prices anymore.
Ah yes, “we” let them and not regulators failing to regulated them.
(food companies all raise prices.)
“Well I’m not letting them get away with that, I’ll starve to death, that will teach them!”
(Electric companies raise prices)
“Screw you too! I’ll sit in the heat and darkness!”
(Gas companies raise prices)
“Ha! I’m already used to this from the last 2, I’ll just walk 4 hours to work and live with no heat in the northeast us! No prob!”
Yeah… We “let” this happen… Ffs…
Collectively agreeing to raising prices is anti-competitive collusion and illegal.
Collectively raising prices is anti-competitive coordination and legal.
Pandemic and supply shocks is a perfect excuse to do the latter.
Good luck to whoever is trying to solve this.
It can be a vicious cycle. Someone raises price for whatever reason. Their competitors see that and think “well, if it works for them, it’ll work for us”. Their suppliers see the price rise and want a share of it, so raise theirs too. New players entering the market will likely set prices based off competition, even if the competition has actually set inflated prices. Eventually even companies that wouldn’t want to raise prices arbitrarily has to because it’s now inflation and their costs have risen.
Even without direct colusion, many companies still end up all following each other.
