Explainer Video on Corporate Power and Profit-Led Inflation
Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford is featured in a new 6-minute video, produced by the Broadbent Institute, discussing the role of corporate price hikes in post-pandemic inflation.
He explains how companies in certain strategic sectors (including energy, manufacturing, logistics and wholesale trade, and housing) took advantage of the disruptions and uncertainty of the pandemic to push up prices well beyond actual costs of production.
The result was the beginning of an inflationary cycle. Unfortunately, workers were victimized twice by this process: first by unduly high prices for essential goods and services, and then again by the impacts of high interest rates which were the Bank of Canada’s only response to this inflation.
The video was produced for the Broadbent Institute’s Progressive Political Economy series, and can be viewed here.
Jim Stanford
Jim Stanford is Economist and Director of the Centre for Future Work. He divides his time between Sydney, Australia and Vancouver, Canada. Jim is one of Canada’s best-known economic commentators. He served for over 20 years as Economist and Director of Policy with Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector trade union.