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“Inflation! Inflation! Everybody’s talking about it, but ignoring one of its biggest causes: corporate concentration!”
That’s according to Robert Reich, author, lawyer and former U.S. secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton.
In a video produced by Inequality Media, Reich said that while politicians complain about rising prices for gas, food, housing and other necessities, they’re missing the bigger picture.
The deeper structural reason for price increases, Reich said, is “the concentration of the American economy into the hands of a very few corporate giants with the power to raise prices.”
The five-minute video features the monocled figure from the board game Monopoly representing a greedy CEO, diving into mounds of gold coins and struggling under the weight of his money bags.
The problem underlying inflation is lack of competition, said Reich.
Corporations are using the excuse of inflation to raise prices and make fatter profits, he said, pointing out that giants in Big Energy, consumer goods and Big Food are all enjoying record profits following high demand during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
“Since the 1980s,” he explained, “when the United States all but abandoned antitrust enforcement, all American industries have become more concentrated … this is true of banks, broadband [Big Tech], pharmaceutical companies, airlines, meat packers and yes, soda.”
This means consumers and workers get “shafted,” he said. More aggressive antitrust enforcement is the solution to this problem, Reich said.
He advised viewers not to fall for “fear-mongering” about inflation but instead to realize the real culprit here is “corporate power.”
Watch the video here:
