Corporate America has enjoyed healthy profit margins in recent years, even as many people have had to make sacrifices to cope with the surge in prices. Inflation hit 40-year highs in 2022, and though it has cooled since, consumers have not gotten a break.

Profit margins at nonfinancial firms should remain elevated this year, as they benefit from lower costs, according to Goldman Sachs analysts. Companies are typically slower to reduce their prices when costs decline than they are to raise prices when their expenses jump.

“Corporations just got used to ‘If I can charge the consumer X, Y and Z during the pandemic, and I can still continue charging them that now and they’re going to pay it ...

Why are prices still so high? Corporate greed, some say