Sen. Elizabeth Warren wouldn’t let CNBC host Joe Kernan change the subject and try to ignore price gouging taking place because of Trump’s insane tariffs. Whether he paused the tariffs or not, the price gouging will continue. Guaranteed.
Sen. Warren joined CNBC’s Squawk Box for a lengthy interview where she called on Congress to step up and rein in the ridiculous economy-busting tariffs Trump is imposing,
Co-host Becky Quick asked about the chaos Trump has caused.
QUICK: Those items will be coming in to the middle of to the end of May without having a tariff on them. You said you’ve been hearing from businesses that are already raising prices on this. Are they gouging by raising prices before their own prices go up?
WARREN: Look, if they simply are passing along increased costs, that very much is a tax on the American people when they do that. But there are businesses that are already saying quite publicly, yup, they’re worried. And so they’re raising prices now. And this is actually one of my most serious concerns about the tariffs.
Once everyone starts talking about price increases and remember, this started last Friday with Jerome Powell saying that he’s very concerned that we’re going to see inflation, that his costs are going to go up across the board for everything that consumers buy.
That creates the environment for businesses to be able to say, oh, well, we’ll just go ahead and increase our prices now. We will increase our prices more than the cost of the tariffs. And so you get the one-two punch of passing along costs from the tariffs, but also price gouging.
Enter MAGA host Joe Kernen who always defends corporate greed.
KERNEN: You always say that they’ve been that’s been remember our last conversation. This is almost like part two.
Remember our last conversation about price gouging.
So now you’ve really now you’ve got another way to say that corporations are doing that.
But egg prices, egg prices came down, inflation came down.
It seems like the corporations only gouge when you say they’re gouging and then they’re unable to at other times.
WARREN: So I know you don’t want to listen to me on this, but listen to Jerome Powell on this.
The example he gave on Friday was from the last time that Trump’s tariffs went into effect.
And he said there was a tariff on washing machines.
No surprise. The price of washing machines went up.
But the shocking part is the price of dryers went up as well, even though there was no imposition of tariffs on those.
You tell me what that is, except for price gouging.
KERNAN: I’m trying to trying to figure that out, unless you have a clothing line and unless you have a clothesline out back, you need to dry it, though, Senator.
WARREN: You need the dryer. But the price doesn’t go up on dryers.
The cost of dryers didn’t go up —
WARREN: I love the way you’re, I love the way you’re changing the subject here.
That is an example of price gouging.
Really, how low have the cost of eggs gone? Not much. Gas prices are high again.
Case in point. When COVID supply chain problems hit, companies kept prices the same but lowered the amount of product you received. Take Gatorade Zero. They sold 32 oz bottles, but then lowered the quantity to 28 oz but charged the same.
Since COVID issues are gone, why hasn’t Gatorade began selling the product back at 32 oz?
Because they can. They built their price gouging into their profits and will not let them go.