It’s amazing that corporate price gouging gets such little attention. It’s responsible for more than 50 percent of inflation that’s causing consumers so much stress and hardship. However, it gets little publicity.
Accountable.US, a consumer watchdog group, reports lots of information on this, but I seldom see it in the press.
Here are a few examples:
- AstraZenecaannounced nearly $2 billion in second quarter 2024 earnings Thursday — a shocking total earned amid the company’s ongoing legal challenge to block the Biden-Harris administration from lowering medication costs for millions of Americans. The pharmaceutical giant is one of five companies appealing recent court rulings defending Medicare’s negotiation authority.
- On Wednesday, Chipotle Mexican Grill announced $455.7 million in second quarter 2024 earnings — a 33 percent increase year-over-year which came as the company spent $151.4 million on stock buybacks and authorized an additional $400 million in future buybacks. Since 2021, the fast-casual giant has raised pricessix times, leading to four-straight quarters of better-than-anticipated earnings. The announcement comes as the latest Consumer Price Index report shows corporate profiteering in the big food industry remains a major driver of costs even as inflation has cooled for the fourth consecutive month.
- On Friday, American Express reported $3 billion in second quarter 2024 earnings – up 39 percent from second quarter 2023 – while celebrating “double-digit growth in card fee revenues for the 24th consecutive quarter.” As Accountable.US has documented, American Express is among the worst purveyors of exploitative junk fees, including delinquency fees, which brought in $960 million for the company in FY2023. In its 2023 annual report,the company criticized the Biden administration’s crackdown on excessive, hidden junk fees while defiantly declaring on an earnings call that “we expect card fees to be a key contributor to growth going forward.”
- Johnson & Johnson — one of several pharmaceutical giants suing the Biden administration to block the Inflation Reduction Act’s historic Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program from being carried out — beat Wall Street expectations by announcing July 17 $4.7 billion in second quarter 2024 earnings while seeing U.S. sales jump by 8 percent. The positive earnings report comes on the heels of an appeal J&J filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit after its initial lawsuit against the drug negotiation program was tossed out by a federal judge in April.
- On July 17, U.S. Bancorp and Synchrony Bank announced $2.25 billion in combined second quarter 2024 earnings, up 17.7 percent and 13 percent, respectively, while harming consumers with junk fees and predatory interest rates. An Accountable.US review found U.S. Bancorp raked in $277.3 million from fees on deposit accounts, including $55 million from overdraft fees, between January and March 2024. Meanwhile, Synchrony Bank announced $643 million in second quarter 2024 earnings — 13 percent year-over-year growth that comes after Synchrony began increasing APRs to as high as 39.99 percent and charged a $1.99 paper statement fee per card — hiking costs for many consumers by more than $100 a year. Synchrony’s executives previously claimed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rule capping credit card late fees at $8 forced them to impose new junk fees and predatory interest rates in the same breath they announced plans to spend as much as $1 billion on stock buybacks by June 2025.
- On July 16, Bank of America and PNC Financial Services announced $8.4 billion in combined net earnings in second quarter 2024. Recently, PNC Financial Services followed pending rulemaking guidance from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to slash its credit card late fees to $8 while Bank of America, which charges as high as $40 late fees, has yet to do the same.
- On July 12, CitiGroup, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. — three major banks still using junk fees — announced more than $26 billion in combined second quarter 2024 earnings. As Accountable.US has documented, exploitative junk fees levied by banks and financial companies cost American families billions every year. In the beginning three months of 2024, CitiGroup, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase & Co., raked in $2.56 billion in revenue from these fees.
- On July 11, beverage giant PepsiCo. announced $3.08 billion in second quarter 2024 earnings, beating earnings estimates as the latest Consumer Price Index report shows corporate profiteering in the big food industry remains a major driver of costs even as inflation has cooled for the fourth consecutive month. After a series of price hikes last year, PepsiCo has seen push-back from customers “balking” at higher prices.
Accountable.US’s reports go on and on, pointing out record profits while consumers struggle. Check out its website regularly to keep up on corporate price gouging and other consumer news.
Why doesn’t this price gouging get more attention? Is it because it’s an election year and no politicians want to call attention to these misdeeds and risk not getting donations? Is it because news for consumers in general doesn’t get much attention? Is it because businessmen run newspapers and favor corporate news that they depend on for advertising?
Whatever the reason or reasons, it’s exasperating.
