Elizabeth Warren Wrongly Blames ‘Shrinkflation’ on Corporate Greed

Another word for shrinkflation is an obscure concept economists call “inflation” where general price increases erode the purchasing power of consumers’ dollars. Inflation can appear when the price of a same-sized bag of chips increases, and when the size of a same-priced bag of chips decreases. Both phenomena are still just the per-unit cost of a good increasing.

Warren’s rant about shrinking Oreo packages is just the senator’s way of adding a conspiratorial gloss to the painfully obvious effects of decades-high inflation the country’s lived through during and after the pandemic.

But one doesn’t need conspiracy theories to explain recent inflation. The federal government’s $4 trillion in fiscal stimulus during the pandemic put a lot of cash in people’s hands right as production was falling. The inevitable result of more money chasing fewer goods is higher inflation.

via reason.com

Sen. Warren’s recent wealth may shrink if she’s not careful. She’ll be worth $60 million instead of $70 million. I’m sure she didn’t make that money btw. We all did, but she gets to keep it.