[Green_man]

I may be missing something, but if there is no competitive pressure/monopolistic market, why would these businesses need the excuse of inflation/cost increases to increase their prices? Wouldn't we expect prices to have gone up before inflation?

Or is this a specific criticism of a regulatory blind spot for reigning in market power? Monopolies can get away with price increases now, but they wouldn't normally?

[massysett]

The argument is that they had market power before, but were afraid to exercise it for political reasons or because they feared enforcement action. Now, with inflation, the company has an excuse to raise prices, but now they're raising them only partly due to increased costs, and partly as an exercise of their market power.

[smileysteve]

What is "before inflation"? Deflation is bad it means you should keep your dollars instead of investing them.

[lupire]

Do you buy less food when interest rates on your investments are higher?