The End of a Fair Price: Dynamic Pricing and the Normalization of Gouging

Lindsay Owens's book "Gouged" challenges the mainstream economic narrative that attributed post-COVID inflation to market forces, instead documenting how corporations deliberately used dynamic pricing and artificial intelligence to increase profits during inflationary periods. Owens, a sociologist, gained prominence by analyzing corporate earnings calls and conducting research showing that companies like Instacart charged different customers different prices for identical products, practices she argues constitute price gouging rather than legitimate market behavior. Her work has prompted regulatory scrutiny and contributed to shifting the public conversation away from economists' defenses of corporate pricing toward accountability for manipulative pricing tactics.