Democrats prefer to scapegoat businesses for inflation rather than concede that their policies caused it

See Democrats’ ‘Stop the Steal’ Campaign by Allysia Finley. Excerpts:

"True, profits at some food retailers have increased. Kroger’s profits rose by nearly a third between 2019 and 2023, owing largely to inflation increasing its sales. But its net profit margin is still less than 2%—far slimmer than the 8% average for all U.S. firms. On the other hand, some retailers, such as Stop & Shop and Dollar Tree, are closing hundreds of stores because of inflation and shoplifting. Businesses are victims of Mr. Biden’s inflationary policies too.

Retailers are getting squeezed by higher costs for products, labor, energy, rent and insurance. Since the start of the pandemic, food prices at stores have increased by 25%, less than the bump in average grocery worker wages (33%) and farm product prices (32%).

Large retailers like Costco, Walmart and Amazon can negotiate discounts with suppliers to keep prices down. Progressives think this is unfair. Hence Ms. Warren and others insist that the Federal Trade Commission require that “small and large firms generally pay the same price for the same products.”

This would destroy the business model of big-box stores while increasing prices for everything from diapers to milk. Democrats also want to ban food manufacturers from paying supermarkets for better shelf placement. Supermarkets would then raise prices to compensate for forgone revenue.

Democrats have even introduced the Price Gouging Prevention Act, which would empower the FTC to impose de facto price controls on food, gasoline and other products. The result? Widespread shortages."

"Mr. Newsom denied that climate policies or mismatches between supply and demand are to blame for California’s having the highest gasoline prices in the country. Instead, he faulted a “highly concentrated and opaque market that lets a handful of mega-profitable oil companies upcharge tens of millions of people.” Talk about paranoia. Do oil companies want to “upcharge” only Californians?"

"the state’s climate policies have caused smaller independent refineries to shut down, leaving less spare capacity to increase output when bigger ones experience outages or undergo maintenance."

"neither California nor the federal government has found evidence of price-fixing in oil markets. A San Francisco Federal Reserve study last month refuted that inflation has been caused by price-gouging. As the researchers explain, companies over the past three years haven’t marked up prices above their production costs any more than in past economic recoveries."

"Homeowners and businesses also continue to benefit from debt that they refinanced during the pandemic at historically low rates, which continues to support consumption."