Letter to the editor: Price gouging and corporate greed

It became popular to champion free markets and demonize government regulations. That attitude led to years of nonenforcement of our anti-trust laws. Predictably, business mergers proliferated. Big corporations got bigger, and many became monopolies. As monopolies, they engaged in price-gouging and union busting, competition was stifled, and the quality of goods and services decreased. Corporate profit margins skyrocketed to a 70-year high. Corporate profits drove 53% of inflation in 2023. In 2022, Kraft Heinz profits increased 448% and Cal-Maine, our largest egg company, increased profits 718%.

Consumers are taking a financial hit with rising prices while companies are increasing their profits and using those increased profits to enrich themselves and their shareholders with stock buybacks. Big corporations have forgotten about their employees and consumers in big business’ single-minded pursuit of profits.

The Biden administration is aggressively enforcing our anti-trust regulations to curtail the excesses of monopolies. Finally we have a president who is a champion of the American consumer, interested in helping the struggling middle class. Unlike his predecessor, President Biden is not interested in giving huge destructive tax cuts to big corporations.

The Price Gouging Prevention Act, the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act, and the Food and Agribusiness Merger Moratorium and Antitrust Review Act are all bills in Congress that would help curb corporate price gouging. Tell your lawmakers they must support Biden’s efforts to rein in corporate greed.

Sandy Kremer

Youngwood