The Industrialization of Disappointment 😥

Something in your laundry room has been lying to you since 2014, and the company put the confession in writing. This week we find out why your cake mix, your toilet paper and a $3,500 fridge are in on it too.

GAO, “Consumer Prices: Product Downsizing,” report GAO-25-107451 (July 2025): https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-25-107451 Hostess Brands Q4 2021 earnings call, March 1, 2022 (CEO Andy Callahan) U.S. PIRG, iFixit and Repair.org survey of 50 appliance manufacturers (January 2023) Glover, Mustre-del-Río and von Ende-Becker, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, on corporate markups and 2021 inflation (January 2023, with a May 2023 follow-up) Leduc, Li and Liu, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, on economy-wide markups (May 2024) Shrinkflation Prevention Act, introduced by Sen. Bob Casey, February 28, 2024 Rep. Lou Correa’s House shrinkflation bill (September 2025) Steve Bannon to Michael Lewis (2018)