[cool_dude85]

>The question is why they are able to raise prices now to levels they couldn't before, and as always the answer is a mix of government-created moats and monetary inflation.

The study authors have a different answer about why than you do, though. What they are claiming is that in concentrated markets (like most markets are), shocks like the pandemic allow for firms to raise prices beyond their increased costs, and so increase profits. They have a very interesting graph of after tax profit margins showing that firms in the US are more profitable now than they have been for 70 years, in fact.

[nverno]

They point out a correlation. But would all companies (or enough to drive global inflation) have been able to raise prices beyond their increased costs without the massive monetary expansion? Seems unlikely, at least to the extent they have.