The progressive left relies on the narrative that economics is a sophisticated discipline, full of complex theories, only grasped by “experts” and politicians, because that’s how they pass off their flagrant lies and ignorance. Of course, there’s nothing really that complicated about supply and demand, freedom of choice instead of forced commerce, gross versus net, attacking the affordable energy resource making the global economy move, cronyism, subsidies, debt, printing money out of thin air, and cold hard data.

Thankfully, we conservatives have Andrew Puzder (I routinely lament over the fact that he was never our Secretary of Labor), who along with EJ Antoni at The Heritage Foundation, masterfully and simply debunk the corporate “price-gouging” lie with numbers from the Labor Department—in essence, Kamala Harris’s very own people. Here’s an excerpt, from their report:

Prices paid by businesses (as measured by the producer price index) have risen 19.4 percent under the Biden-Harris administration. That’s precisely the same increase as occurred in the prices paid by consumers over this period (as measured by the consumer price index). In other words, inflation has been impacting the entire supply chain from producers to consumers.

Had producers or retailers been price gouging (that is, increasing prices more than inflation justified), the rate of inflation for consumers would have exceeded that for producers. It did not.

As Antoni and Puzder write, it “adds insult to injury” when businesses are blamed for the problems created by the government, because on the contrary, businesses were bearing the brunt of inflation faster and harder than the consumer:

In fact, consumer price increases have only recently caught up with the price increases businesses faced. For most of the last three and half years, cumulative inflation for businesses has been higher than cumulative inflation for families. In other words, businesses were increasing consumer prices more slowly than inflation was increasing their costs.

Either businesses were unable to keep pace with rapidly surging inflation, or they were protecting consumers from the intensity of the Biden-Harris inflationary surge—or both. Either way, businesses clearly weren’t price gouging.

But despite the data from the Department of Labor, here’s what Robert Reich added to the narrative:

Kroger:

-Had gross profit margins above 20% over the last 5 years
-Is using “dynamic pricing“ to gouge us further
-Paid its CEO $15 million, 502x a typical Kroger employee
-Wants to acquire Albertsons so you have nowhere else to shop

Corporate greed at its absolute worst.

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) August 25, 2024

If you notice the Community Note, Reich is citing the gross profit margin, when the real number to consider is the net profit margin—obviously running a grocery empire incurs millions in operating expenses. Now, I’m not saying the CEO’s work is actually worth $15 million, but the CEO clearly brings a whole different set of skills to the business than someone scanning items as the register. If you don’t like it, don’t shop at or work for Kroger; or, go and procure a CEO’s résumé, get the job yourself, and negotiate for a lower salary package. And, if you think it unfair that Albertson’s may soon be Kroger-owned, then go grow and raise your food, and assume the entire burden of the supply chain upon yourself.

Remember, Reich is an “expert” and was at one point an actual Labor secretary—breaking the glass ceiling for economic illiterates! (Or, maybe he’s just a deceitful propagandist.)

With all this “price-gouging” talk going on though, since the progressive Democrats don’t seem to have a firm grip on any understanding of it, allow me to help them out with a couple of solid (and recent) examples:

The cost that the Democrats running the Democratic National Convention were charging for the luxury suites, in some cases a 9,075% increase, which I wrote about here.

The price that New York promised to pay for wind energy, ushering in a quadrupling of cost for the consumer and creating a net profit margin of between $45 and $54 per megawatt-hour for the turbine companies (for a product that was only costing $36 per megawatt-hour in total), which I wrote about here.

What about the cost of college, now that the loans are guaranteed by the American taxpayer? Tuition has skyrocketed.

Of course, I could go on and on, but AT contributor Jack Hellner compiled a great list of real “price-gougers,” which can be found here.

Image: YouTube video screen grab.