The ‘greedflation’ question: what have we learnt?

As prices surged, some pointed the finger at profiteers. Cue a heated debate, which along with inflation has mercifully now cooled. With the benefit of time and data, what have we learnt about “greedflation”? Naysayers maintain that it is enough to point to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and government support if we want to explain price increases. We don’t need a story about villainous monopolists amassing power, then suddenly gouging unsuspecting customers. But it’s a bit more constructive to try to understand what the more careful greedflationists were arguing — which is not that the mismatch between demand and supply was irrelevant to inflation, but that corporate power helped to embed it. For example, Isabella Weber and Evan Wasner of the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggest that supply chain bottlenecks crimp competition by leaving some firms unable to service demand. Those who can get inputs then hoik up prices. And when people understand inflation is generally high, th

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• Ruby Scanlon