Amid historically high inflation of roughly 8.5%, it is unsurprising that corporations would pass along some of the burden in higher prices. Yet the ‘marvellous’ and ‘successful pricing strategies’ company executives have been lionising are a step beyond that. Indeed, as Andrew Callahan, CEO of food company Hostess, recently said in an earnings call, ‘when all prices go up, it helps.’ There is little doubt that large corporations will try to capitalise on the chaos to improve profits. Today’s post-pandemic bout of inflation should be a lesson for policy-makers to not let them.
Wealth and income inequality root of cost of living crisis By Brian Reading Ditch ‘Tina’, Margaret Thatcher’s famous claim that ‘there is no alternative’ to recession to defeat inflation. The cost of living crisis demonstrates that income and wealth distribution are at the root of the problem and failure to reform taxation obstructs a solution.
MEETINGS ECB and monetary policy developments Monday 13 June, Roundtable Oscar Arce, director general economics at the European Central Bank, discusses the macroeconomic outlook for Europe, conditions facing monetary policy, new inflation landscape and factors underpinning growth in the euro area.
ON DEMAND How China is balancing geopolitics and economics Dennis Shen, macroeconomist and director of sovereign ratings at Scope Ratings, speaks with Taylor Pearce, economist at OMFIF, about China’s economic relations with the US and Europe in the global macroeconomic and geopolitical landscape.
Data: Towards a new age of economic enlightenment As regulators and policy-makers work to balance protection and innovation in their evolving frameworks, this landmark report explores the use of data and its potentially transformative impact on developments in the global economy, financial services, the business community and society as a whole.
