Is inflation being aided and abetted by price-gouging?
The idea of exploiting inflation to create excessive profits has become known as greedflation—a concept that is typically polarizing. “It is a convenient political meme,” says William Dickens, university distinguished professor of economics and public policy at Northeastern.
Inflation hit a 40-year high of 9.1% in June, and Dickens says the causes have little to do with greed. “It’s exactly what an economist would expect to happen when there are supply shortages: A small change in the quantity of goods reaching the market can lead to a big change in prices in the right environment,” says Dickens, a former Brookings Institution fellow and consultant to central banks around the world.
