While families are dealing with sticker shock, profits for companies that put these goods on shelves are skyrocketing.
Nearly 100 of the biggest U.S. publicly traded companies booked 2021 profit margins that were at least 50 percent greater than their 2019 levels.
Many American companies posted their biggest profit growth in decades by jacking up prices during the pandemic.
Corporate pretax profits surged 25% year over year to $2.81 trillion, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which was the largest annual increase since 1976, according to the Federal Reserve.
When taxes are factored in, last year’s corporate profit increases were even more of an outlier. They soared 37% year over year, more than any other time since the Fed began tracking profits in 1948.