I’d like to see a solid, peer reviewed study that states: in a normal, competitive market, business cost increases are not correlated with consumer price increases.
I mean, obviously they're going to be related. Even in a perfectly competitive environment, if everyone's costs increase then so will the going price. The operative question is whether these increased costs will be passed onto the consumer in their entirety, and that much isn't necessarily clear. If they do pass those costs on 100%, then it's a tacit admission that they weren't pricing in a profit-maximizing way before the cost increase.