As the 2024 election approaches, the Biden administration has gone into overdrive to try and convince the general public that inflation isn't his fault - and instead, a scourge of corporate greed washed over the country like a plague.
It certainly wasn't Biden's extended-innings of pandemic stimmies, sanctions on Russia, and rates being too low for too long.
Nope, corporate greed.
Except, these companies apparently really suck at being greedy, as margins have been dropping at the same time!
Of course their central premise fails to account for why corporations simply weren't 'greedy' in the Trump-era.
During the superbowl, Biden hammered the concept of "shrinkflation" - essentially, less food in the same package from snack food corporations. There are "fewer chips" in your bag, while companies are "still charging you just as much," Biden said.
According to Politico, recent polling circulated in the White House shows this 'corporate greed' narrative is working.
"It’s about framing this for the American people," said an anonymous official, adding that Biden's open frustration with shrinkflation "speaks to what they feel in a way that’s useful for us both in terms of messaging and making sure they understand that the president sees what’s going on."
The White House in recent weeks has sought new ways to neutralize concerns over grocery costs, a major factor dragging down voters’ otherwise improving views of the economy. Officials are keen to push back on the GOP emphasis on high food prices, and Biden has personally taken issue with the practice of shrinkflation — though some officials still question how much attention the president should devote to food inflation, specifically. -Politico
And so, to further legitimize the corporate greed narrative, the Biden administration has thrown the full weight of the US government behind a new "FTC-DOJ task force" which has been 'tasked' with cracking down on "unfair and illegal pricing" by said greedy corporations.
The task force will be jointly led by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, two agencies at the forefront of the Biden administration’s aggressive regulatory agenda over the past three years. -CNBC
"We’re excited to be co-chairing the president’s new Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing, which builds on the FTC’s far-reaching work to promote competition and tackle unlawful business practices that are inflating costs for Americans," said FTC Chair Lina Khan in a Monday call with reporters.
The 'strike force' (lol) will be co-chaired by Jonathan Kanter, assistant AG for the DOJ's antitrust division.
"Here at the Justice Department, we are confronting some of the world’s most powerful corporations so that we can improve the lives of American families," Kanter said on the call.
On Tuesday afternoon, Biden will convene the sixth formal meeting of the White House Competition Council - a group of top officials throughout the administration who will 'root out anti-competitive practices across a wide range of industries.'
In short, definitely don't blame the Biden administration for all the inflation.
