On any given day, Groundwork's analyses, op-eds, reports, and commentary are featured in leading publications and on the most influential news programs and podcasts.
Favorites from Mondelez, maker of Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish, jump nearly 40% as Trump’s Iran war and tariffs drive up costs, push 40% of parents into Halloween debt.
Lindsay Owens, president of the progressive economic think tank Groundwork Collaborative, says voters across party lines increasingly believe America’s political and economic systems are rigged in favor of powerful interests.
Shopping should not be both increasingly expensive and increasingly exhausting. I’ve worked as an economic sociologist and consumer advocate for over a decade and helped craft policies on Capitol Hill to protect American shoppers. I’m currently the president and CEO of Groundwork Collaborative, a think tank and advocacy group focused on making the economy more accessible to everyone.
"Pricing has changed in our economy and in our country,'' said Lindsay Owens, author of "Gouged: The End of a Fair Price – and What That Means for Your Wallet." "It used to be simple. How much does it cost to make the item, what's the profit margin and put a sticker on it. Now it is a highly engineered science. Companies hire physicists, they hire AI specialists. They build algorithms that can change prices in a nanosecond at retail locations across this country."
Record-high diesel prices are making it costlier to make and transport goods, squeezing household budgets.
Experts are warning that AI could allow retailers to use personal data for dynamic pricing, potentially causing some to pay more for the same items. CBS News MoneyWatch reporter Megan Cerullo breaks down the story.
Diesel prices are up by about 75% from 2025. Heating oil prices have risen sharply in 2026 as diesel fuel and heating oil are essentially "the exact same product," said Alex Jacquez, senior vice president of policy, advocacy and research at the Groundwork Collaborative.
It's called the"annoyance economy"—a term coined by Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive think tank, to describe all manner of tricks and traps that corporations use to separate Americans from their hard-earned money.
The reason why energy shocks are so pernicious for inflation is because energy serves as an input for just about everything in the economy,” said Alex Jacquez, senior vice president of policy, advocacy and research at Groundwork Collaborative, an economic think tank.
Slowing wage growth, ever-increasing prices put the squeeze on Americans’ budgets ahead of midterm elections.