This is according to the billionaire owner of Gristedes and D'Agostino Foods, John Catsimatidis. He said that food giants like Coca Cola, PepsiCo and Nabisco will start increasing their prices as they deal with rising inflation and severe supply chain bottlenecks.
Speaking to Fox Business, he said: “I see over 10 percent [price increase] in the next 60 days.”
He added that he sees food prices “going up tremendously” as food companies drop promotions and try to increase their bottom line. As a result, he foresees them enjoying record profits in the third quarter.
He told Neil Cavuto that inflation is “a tax on the poor and a tax on the middle class because when corporations are going to be taxed and they pass it down to the stores, guess what? They’re going to raise the prices. They will either raise the prices or go bankrupt.”
A significant backlog of shipping containers at two major ports in California is impacting the delivery of food and other goods, while energy shortages in Europe and the Asia Pacific are also playing a role. Although the White House has announced that the port of Los Angeles is committing to working around the clock to alleviate bottlenecks, many nevertheless feel that the Biden administration's economic policies are to blame for the current state of affairs.
A survey carried out by the Morning Consult in partnership with Politico found that 62 percent of Americans believe that Biden’s policies are either very or somewhat responsible for the extreme rise in consumer costs being seen right now. Meanwhile, nine out of 10 respondents said they were concerned about the rising prices.
Another factor at play right now are COVID-19 related concerns, lockdowns in some parts of the world, and vaccine mandates that are pushing many Americans out of their jobs.
Compared to a year ago, consumers are now paying significantly more money for goods and services across the board, with the consumer price index up 5.4 percent year over year in September. Americans are now paying 42 percent more for a gallon of gas on average, as well as 27 percent more for kerosene, firewood and propane; 10.5 percent more for poultry, meat, eggs and fish; 24.4 percent more for used vehicles; 5.2 percent more for electricity; 7.1 percent more for appliances and 19 percent more for bacon.
San Francisco Fed report pins inflation on Biden's economic policies
Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco shows that President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package is stoking inflation. They estimated that the plan will add 0.3 percentage points to the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge this year and more than 0.2 percentage points next year.
They reached their conclusions after examining the vacancy-to-unemployment ratio, which they believe will soon approach its historical peak from 1968 thanks to the spending package. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, meanwhile, is attributing the spike in consumer prices to supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic and worker shortages pushing wages higher.
In the past few months, inflation has been climbing at the fastest pace seen in more than a decade and has dramatically exceeded the Fed’s preferred target of 2 percent; it hit a 30-year high of 4.3 percent in August.
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