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Jeoffry Gordon, MD, MPH's avatar

Detailed and well discussed as usual, but your brief mention of profiteering: " There are also fundamental questions about whether a pandemic, war, or other disaster is a time for profiteering. Thoughtful use of temporary taxes on extraordinary profits could be another tool to slow inflation." overlooks a very important contribution to supply side inflation which could be responsive to real domestic federal policies. Supply chain consolidation, oligopolies and near monopolies in the food chain, gasoline, health care, and some housing. That corporate power (developed over years of federal policy laxity) was able to maintain high prices and increase rents/profitability without government restraint surely contributed to high prices and voters' dissatisfaction.

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Nancy Kimelman's avatar

There is one very important cause of the public's attitude on inflation that gets missed: most people confuse high prices such as we saw in the pandemic with rising prices which is inflation and monetary in nature. Neither the White House nor the Fed is responsible for the price of eggs, but Americans blame both parties. Also missing from tbe current conversation is that prices in tbe U. S. have stopped rising quickly but in other nations key prices have fallen. Why not here?

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