Structural Drivers of Rising Prices and Inflation in the U.S. Economy

The article analyzes multiple factors contributing to rising prices and inflation in the U.S. economy, emphasizing structural and regulatory issues impacting affordability. It identifies technology monopolies and digital platforms as significant drivers that leverage surveillance capitalism to impose opportunistic price hikes across various industries, including healthcare and consumer products. These monopolistic behaviors are underpinned by regulatory capture and regulatory fusion, where industry influence shapes laws to limit competition and protect profits. The piece highlights the role of middlemen and complex supply chains in inflating costs and exacerbating consumer expenses. It also critiques the rollback of antitrust enforcement and pro-competition policies during the Trump administration, which weakened agencies tasked with market oversight and allowed private equity consolidation to push prices higher in service sectors such as healthcare and home repair. Trump-era tariffs, industrial policy reversals, and environmental deregulation contributed additional inflationary pressures, notably in energy markets and construction materials. The article notes that these policies combined to add roughly two percentage points to inflation, a figure with broad economic implications including the Federal Reserve's interest rate decisions. It further discusses the impact of reduced social safety net programs like SNAP and Medicaid on out-of-pocket costs for vulnerable populations. Beyond immediate policies, chronic challenges such as housing supply shortages, tax code biases favoring higher-income homeowners, inefficient affordable housing programs, escalating higher education costs, and fragmented health insurance systems compound the affordability crisis. The piece also observes a decline in wage growth linked to weakened labor protections and the rise of gig economy employment models that classify workers as independent contractors, depressing earnings. Racial and ethnic minorities face disproportionate economic impacts amid these trends. The article calls attention to the growing complexity and opacity of modern corporate abuses, masked by sophisticated technology and regulatory environments that shield entrenched interests. It underscores the need for robust antitrust enforcement, revisiting regulations that entrench monopolies, restoring labor protections, and adopting universal healthcare to mitigate systemic cost drivers. Finally, it critiques current political leadership for insufficiently communicating and addressing these issues, suggesting more radical reforms are necessary to effectively tackle the deep-rooted structural causes of price inflation in the U.S.