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Our economic crisis isn’t inflation, it’s corporate greed and the GOP will only make that worse
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2022-11-05 at 12 AM UTChttps://www.foxnews.com/opinion/our-economic-crisis-isnt-inflation-its-corporate-greed-gop-will-only-make-that-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 the rise in inflation is directly attributable to the astronomical increase in corporate profit margins. In America today, while the working class struggles to put food on the table, fill up their gas tanks and heat their homes, corporate profits are at a 70-year-high.
If you want to know why you are paying $4, $5, $6 for a gallon of gas, you should know that the profits of ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP and Shell skyrocketed by 169% so far this year to $125 billion. These four huge oil companies are spending over $73 billion not to reduce gas prices at the pump but to buy back their own stock and increase dividends to their wealthy stockholders.
If you are wondering why you are paying 43% more for an airline ticket this year, you should know that profits are up 186% at American Airlines and 99% at United Airlines in the third quarter to nearly $1.5 billion. Yes. These are the same companies that received taxpayer assistance of more than $20 billion during the pandemic while cutting 6,400 jobs.
If you are wondering why global food prices skyrocketed by over 33% last year and are expected to go up another 23% this year, you should know that billionaires in the global food and agri-business industry became $382 billion richer during the pandemic.
If you are wondering why we continue to pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, you should know that Pfizer has increased its profits by 42% so far this year to $26.4 billion.