Pass the Buck: Biden Calls for Investigation into Retailers on Supply Chains

The Biden-Harris administration on Monday opened an investigation into retailers, and not itself, to scrutinize the supply chain crisis.

The probe is a repeated strategy from November when the administration opened a Department of Justice probe into oil companies for allegedly “gouging people.” The investigations into private companies is an Obama-era tactic deployed to displace blame on failed administrative policies to the private sector.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) probe into nine massive retailers demands “detailed information” to explain how supply chain disruptions “are causing serious and ongoing hardships for consumers and harming competition in the U.S. economy,” the agency announced Monday.

FTC launches inquiry into supply chain disruptions: https://t.co/nZDkCFey3F

— FTC (@FTC) November 29, 2021

FTC Chair Lina Khan excused the private sector investigation by claiming the supply chain crisis must be studied to “deepen” the Biden-Harris administration’s “understanding” of “business conduct.”

“The FTC has a long history of pursuing market studies to deepen our understanding of economic conditions and business conduct, and we should continue to make nimble and timely use of these information-gathering tools and authorities,” Khan wrote.

The probe, consuming businesses’ time and money, will specifically consist of gathering operational data to expose the points of crisis in the supply chain, along with company practices that are said to increase Bidenflation. The companies must comply with the investigation within 45 days. – READ MORE