For the last several months, corporate executives have been loudly lamenting the rising cost of doing business due to supply-chain disruptions and labor shortages.

Indeed, inflation at levels not seen since the early 1990’s has shown itself to be both larger and more persistent than almost anyone is comfortable with.

Roughly four out of five companies surveyed by the Richmond Federal Reserve reported hiking up prices for consumers to cover “at least some” of the input costs they were experiencing.

But those same execs have been a bit more discreet — apart from their quarterly earnings calls — about celebrating the record profit margins they’ve been able to achieve by not only passing costs on to customers, but by charging even more.

More than half of the companies surveyed by the small business services reviews website Digital.com reported raising prices beyond what was required to offset rising input costs.

“In other words, businesses are inflating already inflated prices in order to turn a bigger profit amid people’s fears over uncertain times,” the sites small business expert, Dennis Consorte, said in a statement.

Additionally, large firms were more likely to engage in this practice than small businesses, the survey found…read more.

Slowly but surely, the supply chain bottlenecks that have plagued the global economy for over a year appear to be easing—or at least have been circumvented.

The country’s largest retailers all said in unison this week that supply chain snags won’t play the role of the Grinch this holiday shopping season.

• The CEO of TJX, the parent company of TJ Maxx and HomeGoods, declared, “We are in an excellent inventory position” ahead of the holidays.
• Target’s inventory surged 17.6% last quarter. It said its investments in inventory and staffing mean “we are going to be there” when you walk in to buy that TV.

And remember the global chip shortage that was crippling the auto industry? That could be past its peak.

• GM said that the week of Nov. 1 was the first time since February that none of its North American assembly plants were offline due to a lack of chips.
• Toyota’s production lines in Japan will return to normal operations in December for the first time in seven months…read more.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is at risk of adding to Canada’s inflation problem if it unveils more big-ticket spending measures this fall, a Bank of Nova Scotia economist said in a note to clients.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is expected to give the government’s first major statement on taxes and spending since Trudeau’s Liberal Party won re-election on Sept. 20, including tens of billions in new spending. She should refrain from adding that stimulus to an already hot inflationary environment, Scotiabank’s Rebekah Young said Monday.

“Even since the elections, we’ve seen vulnerabilities in the recovery in terms of higher inflation and severe labor shortages — so different economic issues are emerging and appearing bigger than during election time,” Young said by phone.

Canada has reported inflation of higher than 3 per cent — the upper end of the Bank of Canada’s control range — for six straight months. That streak is almost certain to reach seven months when October’s inflation numbers come out on Wednesday: Economists are expecting a 4.7 per cent price rise…read more.