Tag Archives: price gouging

Analysis Shows How Corporate Profits Drive Inflation—Even as Business Costs Go Down

“It’s one thing for corporations to pass reasonable increased costs to consumers,” said one analyst. “It’s another for them to line their coffers by exploiting Americans who are just trying to get by.”

By Julia Conley. Published 1-18-2024 by Common Dreams

Photo: Pixabay

Inflation has eased over the last two years, and with supply chains no longer struggling to keep up with demand and companies’ business costs stabilizing, an analysis out Thursday asks: Why haven’t American households seen the benefits of a more secure economy, with the prices of consumer goods and services falling?

The answer, said economic justice think tank Groundwork Collaborative, is that high prices linked to the coronavirus pandemic were never just the result of higher labor and production costs—but were partially caused by corporations’ deliberate price gouging.

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A ‘Landmark Victory’ for Consumers and Climate as California Passes Big Oil Price Gouging Law

“Whether it’s price gouging at the pump or drilling in people’s backyards, Big Oil’s days of harming our health and our pocketbooks must end,” said one advocate.

By Brett Wilkins.  Published 3-28-2023 by Common Dreams

A pump in Gorda, California in 2021. Screenshot: KSBW

Climate and consumer advocates on Tuesday hailed California lawmakers’ passage of legislation aimed at tackling Big Oil price gouging as the proposal headed to the desk of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said he will sign the measure into law.

The California Assembly voted 52-19 on Monday in favor of S.B. X1-2—authored by state Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-9)—which will empower the California Energy Commission (CEC) to impose profit caps and penalties on refiners and create an intra-agency watchdog tasked with conducting greater oversight of fossil fuel companies to minimize profiteering. Continue reading

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Why Are Drug Prices Rising So Much? Pharma Exec Admits ‘No Other Rationale’ But Profit-Making

“The industry executive said the quiet part out loud,” said one outside expert in response. “Price-gouging is central to the industry business model.”

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 11-28-2019

Photo: Liz McGregor

Corporations’ quest for profits is what “is driving up drug prices and nothing more.”

That’s according to Dennis Bourdette, M.D., chair of neurology in the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) School of Medicine, who co-authored a study published Monday that sought to find out companies’ rationale for the escalating prices on medications for patients with multiple sclerosis. Continue reading

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