The Biden admin forms a strike force to curb high prices, escalating its greedflation fight

The price is not right… The White House this week announced the creation of a strike force tasked with battling “unfair and illegal” corporate pricing in sectors like healthcare, grocery, and housing. The force’ll be helmed jointly by the FTC and DOJ, the agencies that’ve led the admin’s robust antitrust agenda. President Biden, who’ll address the country in his State of the Union tonight, has blamed eye-popping receipts (and Americans’ grim economic outlook) on corporate price gouging. Even as prices for grocery staples have fallen, officials said some corporations are keeping sticker prices high.

• Commercerating: The US Chamber of Commerce and banking groups were quick to criticize Biden’s price fighters and the admin’s new rule capping credit-card late fees at $8 (down from a $32 average).

• Grocery grappling: The FTC last month sued to block the $25B Kroger-Albertsons supermarket merger, saying it could raise prices. The admin’s also increased average SNAP benefits by twice the amount that grocery prices have risen.

The war on greedflation… Greedflation — when companies hike prices to boost profits despite not “needing” to — has gone from fringe theory to presidential talking point. In Q2 and Q3 last year, corporate profits drove 53% of inflation. In the 40 years before the pandemic, that figure was just 11%. Now more economists (and Cookie Monster) are sounding the alarm on profit-pumping moves like shrinkflation. European grocery chain Carrefour (the world’s seventh-largest retailer) said it would no longer carry Pepsi products in stores because of continued price hikes.