[myhrvold]

A less nefarious reason behind companies increasing profit margins, is that with more uncertainty -- i.e. potential supply chain disruptions in the future -- companies feel the need to make more from what they are able to get to the end consumer/customer.

Generally speaking, there's a lot more that can go wrong than go right in terms of getting stuff to people especially from overseas. (True anywhere in the world.) And the specter of uncertainty basically elevates the default cost of doing business for everything.