An Albertsons supermarket in Redmond, Washington. Increasing grocery prices have brought new attention to the problem of affordability. David Ryder/Reuters

President Donald Trump is blaming his predecessor, Joe Biden, for the affordability concerns that are roiling the US economy – and politics. Many voters, meanwhile, are blaming Trump for their financial woes.

Both sides might be wrong.

Biden and Trump both made policy decisions that affected consumer costs, such as the Trump administration’s tariffs that rattled supply chains or the stimulus that the Biden administration pumped into the economy just as it was coming out of the pandemic.

However, prices are not set by presidents. They’re set by businesses, sometimes through negotiations with customers. And as taught in Econ 101, pr

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