BrainWorms

It helps when we let them build virtual monopolies with almost no regulation.

Pandemic scarcity showed companies that we don't question legitimacy. They observed that once we got used to the higher price, we were helpless to fight back.

Shrinkflation and price increase became the norm. Now it's our reality.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

When asked how much of Canada's current inflationary problem can be blamed on price hikes above and beyond companies' cost increases, Macklem said, "I don't think we can put a number on it," but other central bankers have been far more willing.

Paul Donovan, a London-based economist with Swiss bank UBS, says the scenario described above is what's known as "profit-led inflation" and he's been waving red flags about it for most of the past year.

While it has exposed itself to varying degrees in various places around the world, the one condition it requires is a strong narrative: consumers have to believe en masse that price increases are justified, or they won't accept them.

"Consumers in the U.K. have shown themselves less willing to believe the narrative of why prices were rising, and supermarkets are eager not to alienate customers and so seek to shore up loyalty through the privileged discount scheme."

Jim Stanford, an economist and director at the Centre for Future Work, says its refreshing to see central bankers start to acknowledge that corporate profits have played a disproportionate role in inflation, because for too long Canada's economic discourse has been trying to put the blame on anything but that.

I've heard that advice from a dozen people [but] I think it's unreasonable to expect that somehow consumers have to solve the problem by becoming bargain hunters and spending half their week looking at grocery store leaflets."

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