When we hear that corporate profit margins averaged 9% in 2019, and now are averaging 16% in 2021, that seems like more than passing on rising costs to consumers. The profit margin wouldn't be increasing at such a high rate if it really was just a case of passing on costs, as those costs would eat up the additional revenue if there was a one-to-one ratio of increased costs to increased price. Clearly, with an almost 50% increase in profit margins over the last two years, those price increases are more than passing on increased costs to consumers, there's quite a bit more happening in there. Of course, if you break it down by industry, there are going to be differences, but there are several industries where there's a pretty strong profit growth by significant amounts that would seem to dwarf whatever their increase in costs are, or presumably, there would be no increase in profit if consumers were just paying the additional costs of the company in delivering the good or service.
On April 25th, 2022. See this statement in context.