Government edicts prevent any new players from entering the market. In our market we have supply and demand. Currently, there is demand chasing a shrinking sup

Government edicts prevent any new players from entering the market. In our market we have supply and demand. Currently, there is demand chasing a shrinking supply. We wrecked the status quo by freezing the economy and the jobs held in place. With the stimulus checks, wages were forced up to overcome the challenge of people sitting at home or coming into work. Costs thus increased. Most of the suppliers have held back on price increases because they a. Do not want to hurt the consumer, b. Do not want to have the government thinking they are price gouging (which if you want to be new to market and provide a product similar to everyone else but at a much higher price to cover your entry costs, good luck with the opportunistic folks in congress looking to pin this on the corporations). The small businesses are not nimble enough to make paper towels because of capital investments not being there, the big players having a monopoly on store shelf space, and government agencies ready to swoop in and bury you in legal morass. Now we see the companies realizing they are all in this together, similar to when all the airlines simultaneously declared bankruptcy. I am not saying they are collusion to increase prices, I am saying they are inadvertently appearing to collude based on how they feel out the other corporations going.