I apologize for beginning this letter to you with a graph. But this is a very important one. It shows corporate profits after taxes, from 1946 through the third quarter of 2023 . Notice something? Corporate profits are near a record high. Inflation is dropping, but prices aren’t coming down because corporations have enough monopoly power to keep prices high. This is one of the biggest reasons the American public is not crediting Biden with a great economy. Most people aren’t feeling it.
At the end of 2023, Americans were paying at least 30 percent more for beef, pork, and poultry products than they were in 2020. Why? Near-monopoly power! Just four companies now control processing of 80 percent of beef, nearly 70 percent of pork, and almost 60 percent of poultry. So of course it’s easy for them to coordinate price increases. And this goes well beyond the grocery store. In 75 percent of U.S. industries, fewer companies now control more of their markets than they did 20 years ago.