Democratic leaders have recently blamed record-high rates of inflation and energy prices on so-called corporate greed, but even President Barack Obama’s former top economic adviser says that there is little to no evidence that corporations deserve the blame for the current economic woes.
On Thursday, Bloomberg reported: “Many Democrats blame price-gouging companies for the worst surge in Americans’ cost of living in more than a generation. But economists, including several who are left-leaning disagree.”
“Corporate power is playing likely a very small role in the inflation that we’re seeing right now,” Jason Furman, a Harvard professor and former chair of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, told Bloomberg.
Furman also claimed the “primary solution has to come from the primary cause of inflation, which is demand is way too high.”
Previous Associated Press fact-checks have explained that one reason why demand is too high is that there is too much money in the economy from government spending under the Biden administration.
“Government spending has been a clear factor behind rising consumer prices, though it’s not the only one,” the AP noted in March. The outlet also reported that many economists said President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan “caused inflation to run higher than it otherwise would.”
“But the problem is that Biden pumped more money into the economy than it could handle. Administration officials said before the relief package was passed that the greater risk was do too little to help the economy than to do too much,” the AP explained. “The implicit risk was inflation, though the tradeoff was faster hiring and stronger growth.”
Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has placed the blame for high prices of food and gasoline at the feet of big business. Her solution is more government control, including plans to introduce price controls for gas and oil.
“We need to have a bright light of transparency on how companies are making big profits at the expense — and this is in the energy sector, at the expense of the consumer,” Pelosi said on Sunday. “And we also are having the same kind of hearings … in the Agriculture Committee on how we can increase competition, again, so that we can lower food prices.”
Critics say that Democratic leaders are merely issuing “excuses” for the inflation that has happened under their watch.
“Inflation is at record highs, gas prices are soaring, shelves are empty, the economy is in shambles, and voters have only House Democrats to blame for it,” Congressional Leadership Fund Press Secretary Cally Perkins said in an email to The Daily Wire.
“Instead of spinning up excuses, Democrats should reconsider their woke tax and spend agenda that got us into this mess to begin with,” she added.