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.
[The report] explains that while supply-chain snarls during the pandemic did in fact cause those early bursts of inflationary price increases in 2021, those snarls have dissipated and corporations are no longer paying higher prices for the raw materials that go into their products.
A new report examining the causes of inflation shows that corporate greed and rising CEO pay have caused costs to American consumers to become higher than necessary in recent months. The report from the progressive organization Groundwork Collaborative found that, in the last two economic quarters alone, 53 cents of every dollar of inflationary price increases was attributable to corporate profits.
A new report compiled by think tank Groundwork Collaborative shows the inflation we continue to see across the country is mostly driven by corporate profits. According to their findings, “corporate profits drove 53 percent of inflation during the second and third quarters of 2023 and more than one-third since the start of the pandemic.” To put that into perspective, only 11% of price growth in the previous 40 years (before the pandemic) was due to corporate profits.
The report, from the progressive organization Groundwork Collaborative, found that, in the past two economic quarters alone, 53 cents out of every dollar of inflationary price increases were due to corporate profits. Since the start of the pandemic, corporate greed and profits accounted for close to one-third of all inflation, the group discovered — resulting in a phenomenon that is oftentimes called “greedflation.”
In a recent report by Groundwork Collaborative on the causes of inflation, their analysis found that corporate profits have a more significant role in driving up consumer prices than commonly acknowledged economic factors. Despite a general decrease in inflation rates, the financial burden on American consumers persists due to corporate practices.
Liz Pancotti, a strategic advisor at Groundwork and one of the report’s authors, told Fortune: “Businesses were really, really quick, when input costs went up, to pass that on to consumers. [But] had they only passed on those increases, inflation would have been maybe one to three points lower.”
“Tell folks how you’ll give them even more economic security if you have four more years. That’s the job he has now,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, a left-leaning think tank. “If sentiment is trending upwards, then that’s a wonderful opportunity to offer a vision for what even more economic security looks like in four more years.”
The Groundwork Collaborative’s report, first reported by The Guardian, says that corporate profits are behind 53% of inflation over the second and third quarters of 2023. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report’s authors noted, “virtually every company in every industry faced rising costs to make products and stock shelves.”
But after falling from its blistering pace in 2022, consumer inflation has gotten stubbornly stuck in the 3% range—rising unexpectedly for the last two months even as wholesalers’ prices stay flat or fall. That is greedflation’s music, offering a clear bit of evidence that excessive profit-taking is happening above the raw cost of goods.
In a startling revelation, the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive think tank, has attributed roughly 53% of the inflation experienced in the United States in Q2 and Q3 of 2023 to the burgeoning profit margins of corporations. This report, highlighted by The Guardian and discussed on MSNBC, suggests that despite a relaxation in costs, corporations have sustained high prices, unduly burdening consumers.