> Unless there's some bread cartel/oligopoly, a bread seller can't just increase prices and use a story to convince people it's unavoidable. This is trivially

> Unless there's some bread cartel/oligopoly, a bread seller can't just increase prices and use a story to convince people it's unavoidable. This is trivially provable false. Companies can charge inflated prices based on story and/or advertising. The entire existence of high end fashion, for example, owes its existence to this being true. But even setting that aside, the primary driver of inflation, oil and gas prices, are set by a literal cartel. And what do you know, the companies in this industry are making record profits.