The Economic Crisis Isn’t Inflation, It’s Corporate Greed
Corporate greed is at a 70-year high and oil companies are buying back stock, not lowering prices
As we enter the final week of the midterm election, voters are expressing deep concern about the state of the economy and inflation. They should.
Today, we live in an economy in which the billionaires are getting much richer while working families fall further behind. Unbelievably, while 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, we now have more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had in the history of our country — with three multi-billionaires owning more wealth than the bottom half of Americans. While employers squeeze workers and their unions for cuts to health care and other benefits, the CEOs of major corporations now make nearly 400 times more than their average employees — the largest employer-worker gap in our history.
During this campaign, my Republican colleagues talk a lot about inflation, and they are right to do so. Over the last year, Americans have become sick and tired of paying outrageously high prices for food, gas, health care, prescription drugs, housing and other necessities.
Unfortunately, most Republicans completely ignore the underlying causes of inflation and the few “solutions” they do offer would make a bad situation even worse.
Yes. During this political season it is easy to blame President Joe Biden and Democrats for inflation. But that’s just not accurate.
Let’s be clear. Inflation is not unique to America. It is an international crisis. In the European Union, inflation is nearly 11%. In Germany, it is 11.6%. In the United Kingdom it is 10.1%. In Ireland, it’s 9.6%. In America, it’s 8.2%, much too high, but lower than it is throughout much of Europe.
The truth is that inflation is, to a significant extent, caused by the ongoing global pandemic, the break in international supply chains and the horrific war in Ukraine. But there is another major reason for inflation that too few people talk about. And that is the unprecedented level of corporate greed that we are now seeing.
According to a recent study, nearly 54% of