President Joe Biden on Tuesday will launch a task force to combat “unfair and illegal” corporate pricing amid record inflation under the 46th president.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) will lead the task force to police what the Biden administration believes are the reasons consumers are experiencing higher prices than ever.
“We’re excited to be co-chairing the president’s new Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing, which builds on the FTC’s far-reaching work to promote competition and tackle unlawful business practices that are inflating costs for Americans,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said.
“Here at the Justice Department, we are confronting some of the world’s most powerful corporations so that we can improve the lives of American families,” Jonathan Kanter, assistant attorney general for DOJ’s antitrust division, said.
Lael Brainard, the National Economic Council director, said,“Over the last year supply chains have returned to normal and inflation has come down. Some corporations aren’t passing those savings on to consumers. … President Biden is fed up with corporate practices that unfairly raise costs for consumers and he’s taking action.”
In advance of the council meeting, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a final rule to cut credit card late fees. The Agriculture Department will also release finalized protections for farmers against potentially discriminatory processing practices.
The announcements and the meeting are part of Biden’s ongoing crusade against corporate pricing practices that he claims are unfair. The White House believes they contribute directly to the public perception that the economy is doing poorly, despite data that objectively shows a strong U.S. economy.
“The competition council and its members have worked to bring down costs on everything from hearing aids to asthma inhalers to EpiPens to air travel, ” Brainard explained.
The Biden administration has sought to combat “price gouging” and “shrinkflation” as two reasons for why consumers still experience high prices.
Breitbart News Economics Editor John Carney explained how corporate greed, or “greedflation,” does not appear to be the reason for higher prices:
Until the Biden administration decided to pass the buck on inflation over to Putin’s Price Hikes, it laid the blame for rising prices on corporate greed. Many Democrats—notably Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont—remain attached to the idea that prices are rising because corporations are somehow using the inflationary environment as an “excuse” to raise prices. Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post has termed this the “greedflation” theory.
If there were any proximity between greedflation theory and reality, we would see corporate profits soaring as inflation took to 40-year highs this year. Instead, corporate profits fell in the first three months of this year, according to the final read on Gross Domestic Product for the first quarter released Wednesday. After adjusting for inventory valuation and capital consumption, corporate profits declined 2.2 percent in the quarter, a $63.8 billion decline.
Inflation does tend to push up corporate profits in the early stages, as rising demand means sales and prices jump faster than the costs of materials and labor. We’re no longer in the early stages of inflation, and we’re seeing costs weigh down profits and high prices weigh down sales.
A February Financial Times/University of Michigan School of Business poll found that former President Donald Trump has a double-digit lead over President Joe Biden on the economy.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.