Businesses cannot cause inflation. Inflation is caused by the relationship between the money supply and goods available for purchase. When more money is added to the system without a corresponding increase in goods & services, prices rise; and even if the money can be accommodated by an increase in goods & services, the people are still robbed of the deflation that would have occurred.

Many false reasons for inflation abound, and one regime narrative that is false but people believe because they want to is that inflation is caused by ‘greedy businesses’. The obvious mistake with this approach, is why is there inflation now, but there wasn’t over the last 15 years? You would have to believe that over the last 15 years no business was greedy, but suddenly over the last two years ALL businesses became greedy. During periods of deflation, are businesses being altruistic? Have TV, computer, and other electronic manufacturers been super nice to us continually dropping their prices all these years? The reality is that businesses cannot cause inflation, they have no control over their sales, and cannot force overall higher prices. Prices are set by consumers, not businesses, via the demand curve. Businesses can only decide where on the curve they want to be.

Businesses are all greedy, and have always been greedy, since there have been businesses. Businesses always want to raise their prices, but they can’t, because they are constrained by their customer’s demand curves; if they raise prices, the amount they sell will fall. But in our current environment, they are able to raise prices, and sell the same amount of goods, with no corresponding drop in sales. So ‘greedy businesses raising prices’ aren’t a cause of inflation, it is a symptom of inflation, the inflation happens first, and then the businesses can raise their prices and sales won't drop off. Which they do, because they are greedy (and it is also necessary for their survival, as their costs are increasing too).

Here is the proof that business cannot cause inflation. During periods of inflation, all prices rise at once. This would not be possible without an injection of money (or lowering of the amount of goods available, which is rarely the cause), because if people had the same amount of money, and all businesses raised prices, there would necessarily be winners and losers. The most ‘underpriced’ businesses would withstand the price raises, but a priori others would have to lower their prices, because consumers would have less money after making their most important purchases. So without an increase in the money supply, If all prices are rising, as they are now, mathematically it cannot be from businesses raising prices; some would have to fall, as people would have less money from their other purchases.

Every business has the decision where on the demand curve they want to be, if they want to lower prices and sell more, or raise prices and sell less (and have a smaller operation with lower costs). Businesses don’t price their products based on what it costs them to make; consumers don’t factor ‘cost’ into their purchasing decisions, customers don’t care what it cost businesses to produce something, they have their own ideas of value, relative to other potential purchases they can make. Prices and thus sales are determined by customers’ subjective valuations, which make up the demand curve. When businesses raise prices, people will purchase less of their products and purchase something else that is a substitute which they think is a better value to them. This is why businesses can’t just increase their price indefinitely; when prices are raised there is a marginal buyer out there who now values something that they consider a substitute a better use of their funds, and will purchase that instead. You lose those marginal people with every price increase.

But right now, businesses are raising prices, and not losing the marginal customers, their sales are staying the same; this is because there is more money in the system, the entire demand curve is shifting; they can raise their prices, because the substitutes are also raising prices. This is the only way ALL prices can rise at once.