President Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are accusing American multinationals of “shrinkflation,” where a the company charges the same amount for a product by reducing the size or quantity of the product. Recently, Senator Bob Casey (D–Pa.) introduced the Shrinkflation Prevention Act, which would declare restraining inflation a deceptive business practice and would prohibit companies from engaging in it.
Casey, Biden, Warren and other like-minded politicians argue that the underlying cause of the contraction in inflation is “greed.” But, as Andrew Heaton explains, greed is virtually constant across all industries and time periods. Restricting inflation is just a passive-aggressive form of inflation, which we are struggling with largely due to government fiscal policy.
Photo credit: captcreate, Flickr; Brett Jordan, Flickr.
- Andrew Heaton: Guest, writer
- Austin Bragg: Producer, editor
- Meredith Bragg: Producer
- John Carter: Producer