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Inflation has become a big issue for the U.S. economy and, of course, a big political headache for the Biden administration. But while many people have been urging President Joe Biden to focus on inflation, there have been many fewer suggestions about what he might actually do. (Wander around the White House muttering, Im focused, Im focused?) For the most part, controlling inflation is now a matter for monetary policy, and the main thing that Biden can do is let the technocrats who control money do their job which means not engaging in Trump-style haranguing of the Federal Reserve.

One thing the Biden administration has been doing, however, is trying to toughen up antitrust policy, arguing that highly concentrated ownership in many industries largely a result of decades of lax regulation is helping keep prices high and possibly contributing to recent inflation.

Id describe this initiative as controversial, except that theres hardly any controversy, at least in the media: Bidens linkage of monopoly power to inflation is facing vehement, almost hysterical, criticism from all sides, including many progressive commentators. And I find that vehemence puzzling; I think it says more about the commentators than it does about the administration.

Lets stipulate that monopolies arent the reason inflation shot up in 2021 because there was already plenty of monopoly power in America back in 2020.

True, profit margins, as measured by the share of profits in gross domestic product, have increased quite a lot recently. Most of that rise, however, probably reflects big returns to companies, like shippers, that happen to own crucial assets at a time of supply chain bottlenecks. Its possible, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren has suggested, that some companies are using general inflation as an excuse to jack up prices, abusing their monopoly power in ways that might have provoked a backlash in normal times; thats certainly not a crazy argument, and making it doesnt make Warren the second coming of Hugo Chavez. Still, such behavior cant explain more than a small fraction of current inflation.

But as far as I can see, the Biden administration and its allies arent claiming otherwise. Theyre simply emphasizing monopoly power because its one thing they might be able to do something about.

And where is the policy harm? On one side, toughening up antitrust enforcement in sectors like meatpacking is something the U.S. government should be doing in any case. On the other side, theres no hint that the administrations anti-monopoly rhetoric will lead to irresponsible policies elsewhere.

As I said, all indications are that Biden and company will leave the Fed alone as it raises interest rates in an effort to cool demand. And I havent seen any important Democratic figure, inside or outside the administration, calling for Richard Nixon-style price controls. The most interventionist policy that seems remotely possible would be something like John F. Kennedys jawboning of the steel industry after an obviously coordinated jump in steel prices and its hard to imagine Biden sounding nearly as hard-line and critical of big business as Kennedy did.

So why the barrage of criticism, not just from the right which was to be expected but from the center and even the center-left?

I dont really know the answer, but I have a few suspicions.

Part of the problem, I think, is an obsession with intellectual purity. Some policy wonks outside the administration apparently expect the policy wonks inside the administration many of them friends and former colleagues to keep sounding exactly the way they did when they werent political appointees. But look, thats not the way the world works. Political appointees are supposed to serve the politicians who appointed them. Dishonesty or gross misrepresentation of reality isnt OK, but emphasizing the good things ones employers are trying to do is OK and part of the job.

Beyond that, it sure looks as if many people who consider themselves progressive are made deeply uncomfortable by anything that sounds populist even when a bit of populist outrage is entirely justified by the facts. Imagine the reaction if Biden gave a speech sounding anything like Kennedy on the steel companies. How many Democratic-leaning economists would have fainting spells?

So heres my suggestion: Give Biden and his people a break on their antitrust crusade. It wont do any harm. It wont get in the way of the big stuff, which is mostly outside Bidens control in any case.

At worst, administration officials will be using inflation as an excuse to do things they should be doing. And they might even have a marginal impact on inflation itself.

Paul Krugman is an economist and a New York Times columnist.

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Paul Krugman: Why are progressives hating on antitrust? - Berkshire Eagle