Today, Dr. Lindsay Owens, Executive Director of the Groundwork Collaborative, testified at a hearing of the Senate Committee on the Budget. The hearing, titled “Corporate Profits are Soaring as Prices Rise: Are Corporate Greed and Profiteering Fueling Inflation?”, focused on how corporate profiteering is driving skyrocketing prices and record profits.
“The 2021 profit data confirms what CEOs have been telling shareholders for months — inflation has been very, very good for business,” Dr. Owens told the Committee. “Over and over, the message from corporate America is clear: they aren’t just asking consumers to pay for their rising costs, they’re going for more…Big corporations are getting away with pushing up prices to fatten their profit margins, and consumers are quite literally paying the price. It’s time to rein them in.”
Watch Dr. Owens’ testimony here – and read her full remarks submitted for the record here.
KEY EXCERPTS FROM DR. OWENS’ TESTIMONY:
“The 2021 profit data confirms what CEOs have been telling shareholders for months — inflation has been very, very good for business.”
“Giant corporations are able to get away with this kind of aggressive and extractive pricing precisely because of the current inflationary environment.”
“Wall Street’s influence in every corner of our economy makes this period of inflation unique and puts us at risk for a profit-price spiral. As profits rise as a result of price hikes, so too does the investor demand for those profits.”
“Shareholders across sectors aren’t hiding the ball: they expect buybacks and dividends, not investments in production. And their strategy is paying off.”
“Giant corporations’ control over our supply chains has supplanted the functioning, resilient system we could have built through robust public investment and free and fair competition.”
“Big corporations are getting away with pushing up prices to fatten their profit margins, and consumers are quite literally paying the price. It’s time to rein them in.”