The Lesson of this Election: We Must Stop Inflation Before It Starts

>> Read article published in The New York Times

PERI’s Isabella Weber discusses recent research that finds that “The sudden news of cost shocks, like the onset of a pandemic and war, grants companies more freedom to coordinate price hikes across sectors because they realize that their rivals are very likely going to do the same.” She argues that a systemic set of regulations and emergency legislation, such as buffer stocks, price-gouging laws, and windfall profits taxes, are necessary to prevent inflation from occuring in the future.

>> Also read: “Implicit Coordination in Sellers’ Inflation: How Cost Shocks Facilitate Price Hikes”