Psst: You want to know what's really driving inflation? (Not what the Fed thinks it is)

In sum, inflation isn't driving these price increases. Corporate power is driving them.

Fed chair Powell worries about the specter of "wage-price" inflationin which wage hikes force corporations to raise their prices, which in turn eat up the wage increases and hence cause workers to demand higher wages.

But corporations aren't being forced to raise their prices. They're enjoying record profits. They can easily absorb any wage increases without their raising prices. The sole reason they're raising pricesand eating away whatever wage increases they've provided their workersis they face little or no competition.

So what's the appropriate government response? Not slowing down the economy. This will only hurt millions of workers, who are just beginning to get the raises they deserve. The problem at the heart of the economy is amenable to only one thing: the aggressive use of antitrust laws to bust up monopolies.

This will take time perhaps years. In the meantime, Biden and the Democrats could do something with a more immediate effect: Enact a windfall profits tax applicable to any large corporation that raises its prices during the same quarter its profits have risen.

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