Katie Porter’s misleading chart: An attempt to distract from Biden’s surging inflation

A clip of Katie Porter waving a chart at a congressional hearing from September 22nd went viral on Twitter this week as ‘proof’ that corporate greed was responsible for inflation.

‘Boom!’, the narrative goes, ‘The high prices your family is paying has nothing to do with Joe Biden or the Democrats. It’s those greedy corporations!’

Democrats are getting the sense that Biden’s poor handling of the economy is about to bite Democrats in the backside at the polls this November. They NEED to shift the blame.
 

Bigger corporate profits account for *over half* of the higher prices people are paying. pic.twitter.com/RZr5O0X4oJ

— Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) October 18, 2022

It looks bad, right? The problem is that Porter’s chart doesn’t seem to add up. Some of you disagreed with her characterization.
 

The level of idiocy one must possess to not realize that higher inflation means higher profits of a less valuable currency is astronomical.

And yet, here’s Katie Porter not realizing it.

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) October 19, 2022

These comments stem from a misunderstanding of basic economics. Inflation is a monetary phenomenon. When money supply goes way up — like it has — too many dollars chase too few goods. Thus, corporation face a different demand curve and equilibrium price goes up. #basiceconomics

— Mark Buffington (@MarkBuffBIP) October 18, 2022