I’ve heard an interesting hypothesis that one of the reasons inflation had been so low in the last decade was because of the price discovery and competition tha

I’ve heard an interesting hypothesis that one of the reasons inflation had been so low in the last decade was because of the price discovery and competition that the Internet provided. Big retailers tend to offer price matching with sites like Amazon and Newegg. Not only does this make it difficult to compete on price, it has the effect of leveling the prices across the market and keeping them in sync. Members of my extended family are small business owners and they frequently have to explain that they simply cannot match online prices. So, profit margins have been going down steadily on sales. I sense there is a lot of pent up price hike pressure all across the economy. If you’ve been struggling with lower margins and higher costs, the obvious answer is to charge more. What better time to do so than when everyone is expecting it? And, once you have made the decision to raise prices, why not be a little more aggressive because the opportunity to do so doesn’t come along very often? Just my two cents.