[conductr]

There’s a million reasons besides tariffs a cost may increase. Sellers with no tariffs will just increase prices to pad profits if they’re given an opportunity to let Amazon pin it on tariffs. There is a lot of evidence supporting the theory that this type of manufactured inflation is what drove the recent pandemic era inflation. Corporate profits alone are the best indicator of this occurring. They raised prices by a lot more than their cost increased because they could hand wave broadly at inflation.

[rsynnott]

> Sellers with no tariffs will just increase prices to pad profits if they’re given an opportunity to let Amazon pin it on tariffs

Well, realistically they'll do that _anyway_. If you decrease price competition, prices go up. That is the order of things.

[conductr]

A lot of things go counter to economic theory. If you’re an American company used to selling 30% above Chinese competitors, you likely can’t ramp up production quickly or will hesitate to make the decision but will likely increase your prices simply because you can and partly because you’re used to the charging x% over Chinese goods. You may even feel being price competitive with China lessens your perceived value, quality, etc. in the consumer’s minds.

[dgfitz]

I'd rather solve that problem than the tariff thing. I was thinking just this morning about the bull-whip effect that never came.