Harris targets price gouging. Will this fix food inflation?

Even though inflation has eased over the past year, it is still a top issue for most voters, with high food prices being one of the most visible burdens on many Americans' daily lives.

That's a challenge not only for consumers, but also for Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running for president on the back of Biden and Harris' track record. That explains why, in her first major political speech as a 2024 candidate in North Carolina on Friday, she called for a ban on grocery price gouging and other measures to combat inflation in the U.S. economy.

“This is the biggest political issue in the election campaign this fall,” says Timothy Richards, an economist at Arizona State University. Although the pace of price increases has slowed significantly, “the biggest complaint about the Biden administration has been inflation,” he says.

Grocery retailers seem like the most obvious culprits for expensive receipts. And federal agencies can look for and prosecute specific cases of unfair business practices. But economists say the reasons for price increases are complex and usually lie further down the supply chain, several steps before the grocery stores where you swipe your card.

Even though inflation has eased over the past year, it is still a top issue for most voters, with high food prices being one of the most visible burdens on many Americans' daily lives.

That's a challenge not only for consumers, but also for Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running for president on the back of Biden and Harris' track record. That explains why, in her first major political speech as a 2024 candidate in North Carolina on Friday, she called for a ban on grocery price gouging and other measures to combat inflation in the U.S. economy.

“This is the biggest political issue of the election campaign this fall,” says Timothy Richards, an economist at Arizona State University. “So far, the biggest complaint about the Biden administration has been inflation,” because inflation is not normal for most young adults, he says.

Vice President Harris also promised to reduce the cost of raising children through a tax credit for families with newborns. And on housing, she promised to boost housing construction and push legislation to curb rent increases and provide down payment support for first-time home buyers.

Food prices are already in focus in the election campaign; one day before Harris' speech, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waved food in the air as props.

On August 1, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan announced an investigation into high food prices “to expose the tactics major grocery chains use to drive up prices and extract profits from Americans at the checkout.”