Groundwork’s Lindsay Owens Praises Creation of New White House Strike Force on Illegal and Unfair Pricing

Groundwork’s Lindsay Owens Praises Creation of New White House Strike Force on Illegal and Unfair Pricing

Today, President Biden announced a new, multi-agency task force focused on lowering costs for families, known as the “Strike Force on Illegal and Unfair Pricing.” Groundwork Collaborative Executive Director Lindsay Owens reacted with the following statement:

“Under the cover of inflation and by exercising their substantial pricing power, corporations are using tricks, traps, and outright fraud to reap record profits. Today this stops.

“President Biden’s new task force is a welcome sight for consumers and bad news for the corporate profiteers.”

Email press@groundworkcollaborative.org to speak with one of Groundwork’s experts about the role illegal and unfair pricing has played in our economy.

Background

Studies by Groundwork have found that corporations have raised or kept prices high, even as the cost of many inputs have come down. They’ve earned record profits during this period.

• From April to September 2023, corporate profits drove 53% of inflation. Comparatively, over the 40 years prior to the pandemic, profits drove just 11% of price growth (Inflation Revelation Report).

• Grocery price increases have outpaced overall inflation. Families are now paying 25% more for groceries than they were prior to the pandemic, compared to 19% overall inflation (Grocery Inflation Report).
• Starting in the summer of 2021, Groundwork began digging through corporate earnings call transcripts across multiple industries experiencing record-high prices. This research revealed CEOs openly bragging to their shareholders about their ability to raise prices beyond their rising costs to increase profits. To justify these moves, CEOs hid behind the cover of supply chain issues and the economic turmoil caused by the pandemic (endcorporateprofiteering.org).