Economic Futures
The Price Crisis: A New Culprit in Rising Costs
03. 26. 2025
A 31-year-old Navy veteran who proudly served his country for a decade has been forced to move every year because rent keeps rising in his hometown of San Diego. A local diner owner makes menu cuts as the price of frozen french fries climbs even as potato costs drop. Diehard Beyhive fans eagerly sign up for presale concert tickets, only to see prices surge indiscriminately.
This is life in America today. In industry after industry, a handful of corporations are leveraging their immense power in the economy to manipulate prices and drive costs up for Americans. Whether it’s groceries, rent, or even a fun night out – Americans are paying more than ever while a handful of corporations rake in historic, unprecedented profits. It’s a price crisis.
How did we get here? One major factor is the decades of lax antitrust enforcement and deregulation that have allowed big corporations to consolidate power, leading to less competition and fewer protections for consumers. Our economy is now set up so that a handful of corporations dominate nearly every industry. Travel? Expedia owns 25 brands, including Vrbo, Travelocity, and Orbitz. Over-the-counter medicine? Johnson and Johnson owns over 345 drugs on the market. Our economy is so consolidated that General Mills owns nearly forty brands ranging from baking goods to snacks to pet food.
Corporations are using both old tricks and new technology to drive prices up, and they’re doing it without our knowledge. Algorithms and surveillance tools can quietly track what we browse, where we live, and when we’re most desperate to buy.Imagine a parent searching a delivery app for cold medicine late at night, trying to soothe their sick child. What that parent doesn’t know is that the app sees their urgency – and instantly raises the price of this exact medicine. It happens in seconds, invisible to the parent just trying to care for their child.
We don’t have to accept this, and over the last decade, we’ve made real progress. A new generation of enforcers, policymakers, and advocates have reinvigorated antitrust laws, taken on major cases against Amazon, strengthened consumer protections, and fought to ban junk fees. And under Lina Khan’s leadership in the Biden Administration, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) returned $337.3 million in refunds to consumers in 2024 alone, taking additional action to lower costs for Americans through an investigation into how corporations use personal data to manipulate prices. Similarly, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has returned over $21 billion to consumers, returning hard-earned dollars that were taken by banks’ mismanagement, auto industry practices, and more.
As corporations double down on unfair, deceptive tactics to squeeze Americans already faced with an affordability crisis, we can’t afford to reverse this progress. So far, the Trump Administration – amid its flurry of chaos in the first 100 days – has shown uncertainty in its commitment to reining in corporate power, continuing some enforcement trends led by the prior administrations while also undermining efforts by hollowing out the CFPB and FTC, underscoring just how critical it is for states to step up.
In California, our affiliate sister organization, Economic Security California Action, is championing state legislation that tackles this issue head-on by prohibiting algorithmic price-fixing. It will hold corporations accountable and stop them from hiding behind algorithms to charge people more – just because they can.
Learn more about how we're combating the Price Crisis
Visit link:The fight to hold these corporations accountable is gaining momentum in states like California, picking up where the federal government left off. Together, we’re laying the groundwork for real change — and a fairer economy for everyone.
ICYMI: Our Picks
- Good news from Illinois! Governor Pritzker’s 2026 budget proposal includes a Child Tax Credit expansion and continued investment in the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit. This decision focuses on improving the well-being of children and families by putting up to $600 directly back into families’ pockets. For years, Economic Security Illinois (ESIL) worked closely with the Cost of Living Coalition, including partners like COFI Chicago, Brightpoint, Hispanic Federation, LIFT, Inc., Worker Center for Racial Justice, and Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and state representatives to create a robust state Child Tax Credit and strengthen the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit.
- “The expansion of the Child Tax Credit will deliver up to $600 to hundreds of thousands of families raising young children across the state. With the state’s continued investments in the Earned Income Tax Credit, we’re putting thousands of dollars back in the pockets of working families, creating new economic opportunities and boosting local economies,” said ESIL’s Director Sarah Saheb. At a time when families are struggling with the price crisis, this added boost is critical.
- ESP President Natalie Foster’s hot take: “Elon says he wants to send you cash through a DOGE dividend? Trust me, there is no bigger fan of direct cash than me. But this is a scam.”
- ESP Executive Director Taylor Jo Isenberg spoke about AI’s potential economic impact with Salon. “If we imbue the government with the expertise to proactively regulate, build public infrastructure to ensure access and affordability, and double down on fair and healthy competition across the industry, I think we’ll be off to a pretty good start.”
- Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance Ai-jen Poo sat down with ESP President Natalie Foster for Aspen Institute’s Future of Work series, explaining how domestic workers are futurists whom we have so much to learn from.
- Speaking with the Associated Press, 31-year-old Aquiel Warner of Austin, TX, shares how filing taxes with Direct File only took 10 minutes on her phone.
- Columnist, sociologist, and friend of ESP Tressie McMillan Cottom gives her take on Elon Musk’s political propaganda machine.
- What do we call people-focused, responsive banking, especially in times of crisis? Public banking. Read more about it in this op-ed from one of ESP’s partners, Trinity Tran.
- A bipartisan agreement: IRS commissioners from both parties warn that gutting the IRS is a huge mistake in this New York Times op-ed.
- From NYC to Madison to Atlanta, momentum is building for public grocery stores. It’s a way for local governments to fight food deserts and rising prices — and shift power back to communities.