Despite unprecedented inflation rates, businesses reported record-breaking first-quarter earnings virtually across the board. Businesses have been able to not only survive but profit off of the current economic turmoil by passing off inflated costs to struggling consumers.

"Take a look around the economy. McDonald's (MCD  ): profits up 59%. They're raising prices. Starbucks (SBUX  ): record profits. They're raising prices. Amazon (AMZN  ): record profits. Shock of shocks! They're raising prices!" Democratic Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders wrote on Twitter (TWTR  ).

Countless businesses around the globe, including massive companies ranging from Nestle (NSRGY  ) to Tesla (TSLA  ), have reported that they were able to increase sales while also using inflation to justify raising their prices. While businesses argue that the increase in prices has been necessary, critics and lawmakers alike have pointed to the record-high profits as proof that the price hikes were motivated by greed.

"Giant corporations are using inflation as cover to raise their prices & boost their profits," Democratic Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote on Twitter. "In industry after industry, we have too little competition and companies have too much power to increase prices."

"As we emerge from two years of the coronavirus pandemic, American efforts to return to normal are being stymied by inflation, driven in part by corporate profiteering and price-gouging," Warren wrote in a letter to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

On the other hand, right-wing commentators say that the high prices are a simple business decision and that the higher profits aren't a direct result. Alongside regular economic fluctuation, economist Will McBride of right-leaning think-tank the Tax Foundation said that Trump-era tax cuts are also contributing to higher profits.

"This is very much a business cycle phenomenon, not changing patterns of greed or a desire to gouge consumers," said McBride. "In fact, what we're seeing is even more than a business cycle. In recent years, we had a large tax cut with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the largest component of which was the reduction in the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, and that certainly boosted after-tax profits."

Economists also pointed to inflation itself as a driving force behind higher profits. Inventories purchased by businesses prior to the recent turmoil are now able to sell those inventories at a higher price.

However, experts don't expect this sustained demand to last. As prices climb, consumers are squeezed out of the market, and a potential recession inches closer.

The businesses have echoed the same sentiment: that raising prices will soon result in suppressed demand if it hasn't already. After all, while wages have also been rising, they haven't kept up with inflated prices. When adjusted for inflation, wages have actually fallen 2.7% over the past 12 months. When the recently shortened length of the average work week is factored in, that reduction in wages reaches 3.6%.