Today, Michael Mitchell, Groundwork Collaborative’s Director of Policy and Research, testified at a hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth on the impact of concentrated corporate power on workers and consumers.
“Across companies and across products, large corporations are bragging about their ability to raise prices beyond rising costs,” Mitchell told the Committee. “For consumers, this includes price increases on essential goods such as groceries, diapers, and household cleaning products. Yet even as families struggle to make ends meet, corporations are turning the screws.”
Watch Michael Mitchell’s testimony here – and read his full remarks submitted for the record here.
KEY EXCERPTS FROM MITCHELL’s TESTIMONY BELOW:
“Groundwork Collaborative has examined hundreds of corporate earnings calls and has found that in sector after sector, corporate executives are bragging about their ability to engage in aggressive price hikes – all without the risk of losing customers. On these earnings calls, executives note that they can blame higher prices on inflation and geopolitical conditions. Unsurprisingly, they don’t mention the real reason they can jack up prices on consumers and families around the country: because they operate in highly concentrated markets with little to no competition.”
“The pandemic has been incredibly lucrative for big business. Nearly two-thirds of the biggest publicly traded companies reported higher profits last year than in previous years before the pandemic…More importantly, corporate revenues increased well above the additional costs businesses have taken on as a result of the pandemic…These record profits have come at the direct expense of consumers, workers, and small businesses.”
“Congress must do its part to address corporate concentration and the power that these megacorporations exert on consumers and small businesses.”
“We should no longer delay the important work of reorienting our economy towards the people who keep it going: consumers, workers, and small businesses.”