It’s time to re-examine the myth that Republicans are “better on inflation”. Those who believe this seem to think that a president can wave a magic wand to instantly lower prices.

Presidents don’t set prices… they’re set by producers and retailers. Economics professors will invoke “supply and demand”, which is behind much of the inflation of the early 2020’s. The pandemic disrupted global supply chains, and people with time to kill and money to spend increased demand. Even though our inflation rate was high during this period, it was a problem everywhere. In fact, the US under Biden/Harris had one of the lowest inflation rates in the world. (See chart)

So instead of “blaming” Democrats for inflation, they should get credit for controlling it more effectively than their global peers.

Producers and retailers, motivated by profit, will set prices as high as they can get away with. When wages started rising after the pandemic, corporations used “inflation” as an excuse to raise prices. If wages rose 10%, they would raise prices 20%. This is documented as skyrocketing profit margins in their earnings reports. During their earnings calls, many corporate leaders bragged to their shareholders about raising prices (Guardian investigation, Jim Hightower column, Institute for Policy Studies analysis). They used obfuscatory terms like “increasing margins” to “add value for shareholders”.

This is price gouging, plain and simple. The president did not raise prices, they were raised by CEOs and high-level managers, and nearly all of those people are Republicans.

Before leaving this discussion of inflation, it’s important to understand how the word has different meanings depending on the context, and how it’s weaponized to deceive us.

The scholarly definition of inflation is a condition where rising prices leads to demand for higher wages, the increased wages lead to higher prices, and the cycle repeats itself.

Most of us think of inflation as higher prices we pay for essential commodities (gas, food, housing, etc.).

But when economic pundits on the business pages, or high-level bankers at congressional hearings, solemnly talk about “keeping inflation under control”, they are talking about keeping your wages from rising. Meanwhile, they know that the rest of us will politely nod in agreement about keeping inflation (prices) under control, even though their tight-fistedness with wages does not make them our friends.

So remember that when prices go up and wages don’t. It’s Republicans that are doing this to us.