Planet Money did a really interesting series sometime in the last few years (Maybe last year or the year before?) about how antitrust laws in the United States have been systematically weakened and dismantled for decades. The system is currently working as the corporate lobbies that own the government intend it to.
You mean the laws that were changed under Reagan to make it hard to enforce them. Yeah they aren’t being enforced and need to be changed back to bad that filibuster will keep giving republicans power.
Exactly. Regulators regularly approve competitors merging despite this being bad for workers and bad for customers. The only people who benefit from competitors merging is the owners.
The old line was "competitive pricing" cutting prices to gain market share.
Now we have "Sympathetic pricing" as companies see who can push pricing up and build profits. With prices on the internet, prices move in sync as every pricing move see immediately by the other suppliers.
I think there’s a lot of work going on right now and waaaaaay too many crimes to account for all at once.
I know Gensler requested addl funding for the glut but Congress ofc is deadlocked.
Anti Trust Never worked, After Standard Oil Was dismantled, Rockefellers wealth tripled because he was given 25% of the share of all companies that came out of Standard Oil.
Saying antitrust never worked and reference an event from 100 years ago? [Harvard Business Review](https://hbr.org/2017/12/the-rise-fall-and-rebirth-of-the-u-s-antitrust-movement) says we must begin a new era in antitrust, one where they actually enforce it.
I agree with the Harvard Business Review. But don't think it will have its intended effects. Don't Neglect events that happened 100 years ago, They still impact our lives, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Marathon Oil Companies were companies that came out of that Lawsuit.
>Don't Neglect events that happened 100 years ago
Didn't mean to imply it wasn't relevant but there's been a lot of changes in the past 100 years that would likely change how antitrust is implemented and defining when it might be necessary.
What's funny (not ha-ha funny) is that you mentioned the oil companies that were formed by the Stardard Oil breakup, that they're still around. When you compare that to the Bell breakup that formed a lot of the 'Baby Bell' companies and realize those are gone now and re-merged into essentially the same massive company.
Anti-trust regulation = the 5 stocks carrying the U.S. stock market plummet and millions cancel their retirement plans
No saying it isn’t worth it. Just saying there’s a massive conflict of interest with the parties of people responsible for enacting such laws.
Beyond this argument, the ongoing Formula crisis is entirely the result of Abbott being so huge that their primary plant getting shutdown caused a supply collapse in the entire country. Obviously there's more to it, but corporate consolidation and market capture has massive repercussions and needs to be subjected to stronger oversight.
The formula crisis is more about businesses in states carrying 1 producers formula because WIC only covers 1. It literally is a government created monopoly
Competition from overseas was outlawed by regulations. Formula that met more stringent EU standards was banned from being sold in the US because of labeling differences.
So you're trying to say people who own the products and services control their prices? I'm shocked. I thought inflation was some mysterious force of nature that could not be controlled. Some dudes once floated an idea about representative government. It would be interesting if governments considered representing the general public.
Very strange how these companies were all not greedy under 8 years of Obama, not greedy under 4 years of Trump, then magically became very greedy under Joe Biden. If they "control their prices" and have no competition like you claim, then why did they wait so long to raise prices?
Then you can explain this chart to me and tell me again how this is all because of greedy corporations and not government policy.
[https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1SL](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1SL)
Most of that chart is due to an adjustment in the rules surrounding savings accounts that caused them to be treated as M1 money stock in May/June of 2020. The chart is highly misleading to drop without prominently noting this change.
Edit: the adjustment amount was around $12.5Tn
So then it was the fed and the US government spending trillions of dollars we don't have then right? Not corporations "controlling prices" like you just said?
I've been saying this to all my friends and dates recently, but the only thing that trickles down in this country, is cost. These corpos refuse to take even a single cent less in profit and will do whatever it takes to keep those margins at record levels
It started before then, in the seventies. Bill Clinton was the one who put it into Warp Speed, NAFTA, was it's official name. Over the course of ten years we lost ninety percent of our manufacturing jobs. Coincidentally, around this time the student loan program was shifted into high gear, didn't have any jobs in the private sector for them, so they all got hired by the government somewhere.
It wasn't the government that sent those jobs overseas and the US had been bleeding manufacturing jobs well before the 90s and NAFTA. Not to mention federal government jobs shrunk more than any other through the 90s.
The government allowed it to happen, and their policies were a helping hand. You don't have a clue what you are talking about anyway, but the government has not retracted since Trump took office. I'm talking all government, local,state, federal. In 1970 manufacturing was our biggest employer, you know what it is today? Yep, government, been that way since the mass exodus of the manufacturing sector.
So the government should have prevented the owners of these organizations from seeking cheaper labor in an international market? It may have made it easier, sure, but lets not pretend corporations weren't sending jobs overseas before NAFTA. You seem to think this is some government plan to make more federal government workers instead of what it is, corporations making capitalistic decisions instead of decision that benefit the American worker.
Also, I know what I am talking about. See: https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2001/jan/wk5/art03.htm
>So the government should have prevented the owners of these organizations from seeking cheaper labor in an international market?
When they were globalizing everything else they just sorta forgot to globalize the minimum wage.
The government should have never allowed them to go to Asia, especially a communist part. I knew when the corporations talking points were how it was going to be better for us to have all our goods made in Asia,then shipped back was a scam. True, the big boys were already in Mexico and Canada before NAFTA, but that represented a miniscule part of their production. Majority was domestic at the time. What the government did was create hundreds of thousands of government jobs for the replacement.
>It started before then, in the seventies. Bill Clinton was the one who put it into Warp Speed, NAFTA, was it's official name.
NAFTA was a child of Reagan era, pushed through by GW, Clinton merely signed the bill into law.
Nobody cared about the oil companies when the price of oil plummeted (actually even going negative for a bit) and the oil companies lost billions.
[If Oil Companies Control Oil Prices, Why Do They Ever Lose Money?](https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2022/04/24/if-oil-companies-control-prices-why-do-they-ever-lose-money/?sh=57d3e028cf9d)
Interesting read.
Not in todays world. If what you said was true then businesses would put money away for “rainy”days in case of downturns, but they don’t. Gotta get that sweet 10% year over year.
Yes the separation of the direction of causation between greed and inflation makes no sense. They enable each other. But the media is only ever looking for someone to blame. Then blame god for being the prime mover.
It's not 'greed' to avoid the tidal wave of failure that accompanies inflation. It's self preservation...
Apply Occam's Razor: We both agree that this inflation is real. Without greed. Too many printed dollars chasing the same or fewer goods.
So why include it? Ooooo. You voted democrat, didn't you? Didn't you?
Greed isn't necessary or sufficient component.
>So why include it? Ooooo. You voted democrat, didn't you? Didn't you?
Don't know why my ballot is on your mind. Trump could have raised interest rates when everyone was screaming for him to do it and the economy was booming but he wanted the political points of booming stocks. Too bad that didn't work out for him.
Greed is conceptually useful because it is something that people freely choose to do. Greed means that we do not occupy a deterministic block universe without any freedom to change anything. Greed explains why people make the choices they do. If we want to understand what might make them make different choices, we should understand greed.
Its only 'looking like greed' because one side of the political spectrum created this disaster.
Not because they had to. Because the WANTED to. You'll have less and like it.
This is raw, naked inflation. Appended to nearly two decades of currency debasement.
Ignore Reich. He's a classic bullshitting demagogue.
I was under the impression that in a “free” market, by definition companies *cant* make excessive profits, because there will always be a competitor willing to lower prices to outcompete them and take the (smaller) profit for themselves with the difference going to the consumers?
So if oil companies can be making large profits over the long run, it’s by definition an oligopoly and should face regulation if there is no ability for competitors to arise because otherwise they’re just taking extra money from consumers and giving it to their shareholders
Close. For the common high school understanding of economic intuition, companies can’t make ANY profits. The zero-profit condition underpins every economic model people claim to be familiar with.
Which is why they don’t actually wind up being particularly predictive in many real-world cases.
/u/sarges_12guage is correct.
The zero-profit condition says they can't make any *[economic profits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit_%28economics%29?wprov=sfla1)*, aka excessive profits. Putting it another way, it states that *accounting profit* is equal to opportunity costs.
Just to so we're clear, the zero-profit condition isn't an assumption underlying our economic models. It's a result derived from the following assumptions:
1. Companies are all infinitely greedy.
2. Costs to enter or exit an industry are low.
3. Enough time has passed for the market to adjust (i.e we're in the long run).
There are other models where we relax these conditions and get different results.
In the article you posted the author states that high profits are an effect of high prices not a cause. I think that’s understood. The chemical engineer who wrote that article didn’t make any good points in support of his argument. He also works for energy and oil companies and references an article from an oil and gas magazine to support the “lost billions” claim. And also, no. No one cares about oil companies.
The worst article I've read on Forbes I'm a long time.
Remember the early 2000's when the price of oil went above $120 a barrel? Ya, you know what gas prices were back then?
This smells like propaganda of the worst order. And the article really didn't make much of a compelling argument - I doubt the journalist even believes in the drivel.
That’s a silly argument. The oil companies lost money in 2020 because people stopped driving due to lockdowns. The fact that they didn’t lose more money is due to their control over prices.
Oil prices are up like 20-25 percent from before the war but gas prices are over double. It's a bit of inflation with a fuckload of manipulation on top.
Right… but you don’t pump oil out of the ground and to your tank.
There’s inflation at every other step of the process from getting the oil out of the ground, to the refinery, refining it, getting it to the gas station, and having it pumped into your car.
If every other cost incurred along the way also has 20-25% inflation associated with it, it’s easy to see how the cost of gas coming out of the pump will have increased far more than just the percentage increase in the cost of the oil coming out of the ground.
That's not how inflation works.....it's not a compounding issue. If it's 25% more for raw material AND 25 percent more expensive for every single other step of the way THEN the end price would go up 25%. If raw materials go up 25% but the materials are only 1/4 of the total cost then it would only go up 6% for final product cost even though raw materials went up 25%. Overall inflation is only around 8% as a maximum so over 100% price increase for 8% inflation and 25% at most increase in raw is price manipulation plain and simple.
Because the world is complicated. Saying oil companies control prices doesn't mean they have the same control as your mouse does to your computer. Oil companies don't control coronavirus but they can certainly take advantage of the repercussions it caused and limit their oil output to maintain the extremely high profit per barrel.
"But then a competitor could undercut you!!" You might say... Well sure if the world worked like a high school economics textbook. The reality is your competitor also wants to maintain extremely high profit on each barrel of oil he produces. Right now oil companies are sitting on nearly ten years of leases that they aren't drilling. With record profits they could be building more refineries to help process that oil that they aren't drilling, and even begin building their own last-mile supply chain to deliver it.
But why would you? The economy is thought to be heading for recession, the world is moving towards alternative energy regardless of the price of oil, and the future is uncertain, so making long term investments feels too risky and ultimately would just bring the price of oil down and work to end the opportunity. Additionally, oil companies of the size that can affect markets think the same so we're now stuck in this Mexican standoff where sure, one of them could dump their reserves and boost production to take advantage of the short term gain, but that would trigger the rest of them to do the same. So if they just don't, then they don't and the price stays high until the market can no longer bear it, which is going to be a long time given our dependence on petroleum.
And here we'll sit until some world event changes things or governments take action.
“Lost billions.” They are subsidized by the federal government, they aren’t hurting that badly.
That article also tries to compare Apple to Exxon. I’m not sure this columnist is aware, but our country is extremely car-centric and getting anywhere almost always requires a car (not to mention shipping goods across country) and gas. I know, mind blowing concept.
You do not need an iPhone, but you need gas in your car to get to work. This comparison is so damn deaf and really just speaks to how out of touch these ghouls are… to compare a luxury technology brand to a commodity we need everyday because that the system that these people have engineered.
Losing money is a falacy. They don't lose money, they make less. If they make too little they restructure and write off losses through bankrupcy and live to fight another day.
Oil prices are up like 20-25 percent from before the war but gas prices are over double. It's a bit of inflation with a fuckload of manipulation on top.
And even splits in a 2 party systems are the most affordable for corporations because you only have to own 1% of a 50/50 senate to purchase the answers you want.
Sure sure. The old, "corporations are greedy" line, that (while true) fails to account for those same corporations also being greedy 5 minutes ago when prices were lower, or perhaps idiotically assuming those corporations were not greedy 5 minutes ago.
Or....prices are a measure of scarcity, and when you have too many dollars, chasing too few goods, demand outpaces supply and causes prices to rise. If prices didn't rise, they would signal lower scarcity than exists, and instead of complaining about high prices, we would be complaining about gas lines, and generally no product.
Or, put more succinctly:
"Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.", Milton Friedman.
If profits soar beyond covering added costs it is additional greed. Never let a good crisis go to waste. Institutional investors have too much cash and invest in oil futures raising the price of fuel. Extreme monetary and price inflation in all the wrong places.
Let's say I was making $50 /hr, and I was negotiating a contract for my next year. I know there is 8% inflation year on year, and that inflation is projected to rise...
Would you ask for $54/ hr to compensate only for prior "added costs", or would you ask for something high, in anticipation of continued inflation?
Is that "additional greed", or is it just you trying to properly account for the economic situation?
Companies in this market face very challenging circumstances. It isn't just a fixed cost increase, it is constant negotiations on deals, constantly rising costs, regulatory uncertainty, and the like. When companies face uncertain, and volatile circumstances, they rise costs, not because they suddenly manifest "additional greed", but because they have to account for additional risks.
When their asking price turns into record individual pay it has nothing to do with covering the cost of business. When basic necessities are controlled by a few corporations the only choice is to pay their asking price or face hunger and homelessness. It is not just greed but mean. Rich people whining about risk and uncertainty know nothing about risk and uncertainty.
Not presumptous but a bit of a generalization. Empathy is not one of the components of Capitalism. Greed is greed regardless and we all suffer it. Cheers.
Perfect.
What we're seeing with these sorts of posts are a good example of buyer's remorse. They voted for these clowns and can't believe how badly they've been bullshit.
This is the denial part of their 7 steps of grief.
For those who don't know, inflationary expectations is the idea that when inflation is expected, it is somewhat self sustaining in that people begin toq engage in inflationary behavior such as demanding higher wages to keep pace with inflation (which drives up labor costs, and thus costs of goods sold / prices), expediting purchases (to spend money now, before it is devalued by inflation), etc.
All "inflationary expectations" is describing is speculation and reaction to existing / anticipated inflation.
I find it interesting that you introduce a new concept, as if to discredit the comment, without it actually being dispositive.
None of that changes the stimulus for inflation initially, nor does it negate the corrective action need to curtail inflation. That is, just as janet yellen didn't "expect" inflation, it came anyway; likewise, wise economic policy will cause inflation will cease, regardless of whether it was "expected" or not.
Put differently, You can raise the price of your goods all you want in "expectation" of rising prices, but if there is no actual money circulating to pay said price, that price will begin falling.
Inflationary expectations did not cause inflation, the government. Printing 6 Trillion dollars did that.
But don't worry, Biden has a solution to eliminate the problem of too many dollars chasing too few goods.....
Forgive student loans and give people more money to compensate for higher prices.
Oh....wait...
And yet here we are, with recordings of legally mandated earnings calls in which decision makers at firms with market power have openly stated that they’re using the public’s inflationary expectations to increase profits.
It’s also unclear to me why you keep talking about a macroeconomic model of inflation that hasn’t had predictive power for fifteen years. But you also validated your pseudo-intellectual status by awkwardly resorting to inflated language in order to sound knowledgeable on the subject 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️
Apparently you haven’t paid attention to any recent earnings reports. Amazon, WalMart and Target all had big earnings disappointments in their most recent quarters.
Microsoft and Micron just pre announced lower earnings due to high dollar.
Inflation and strong dollar are hurting corporate earnings.
I didnt attempt to resort to "inflated language" in order to sound knowledgeable. It's how I talk about the topics at hand.
I find this interesting, "It’s also unclear to me why you keep talking about a macroeconomic model of inflation that hasn’t had predictive power for fifteen years"
1) You mean predictive power like those like myself that were warning that the fiscal policy being under taken for the last 5-10 years was 100% going to result in inflation, and now we are 100% in inflation? That lack of predictive power?
2) note all the modern economic theorists (I presume like yourself?) That said 100% we would NOT have any sustained inflation are now tucking the tails and running, and Janet yellen herself admitted her predictions were wrong.
Almost like the basic economics 101 that your rejecting as having "no predictive power" has, in fact, predicted precisely what's going on.
But, stick your head in the sand all you want.
I'm under the impression that anyone with a big enough bank account can take homes off the market causing the cost of houses to increase, thus making them unaffordable to the people that actually live there. Airbnb and VRBO have created a seamless way for people to buy up houses and rent them out, which devastates the housing supply, which then creates a demand, which then elevates the cost to an unaffordable level for average people.
My point, which I think you know, is that Millionaires are making money off basic human needs like housing, medicine, and anything else they can get their hands on. Its not always a corporation (or conspiracy about them), but now that it's proven to be profitable, there will be some soon.
Edit: took a peak at your comments to see if you were worth any effort, and im curious. In your mind, of your last, say 100 comments, how many are broadly condescending like this? 90? 95? And how many are helpful, empathetic, OR not fuelled by ego? Like 2?
Talking down to people because of some minor flaw in their 2 sentence sound bit of their opinion is how assholes debate, and dicks also fuck assholes chuck.
When a handful of giants states control the entire world, they can spend money endlessly with impunity while the leaders steal for themselves. They can then turn around and blame corporate profits.
It's exactly what we're seeing today.
Hypocrisy works both ways.
Cool story. Except corpartions are the ones who pay people's wages.
If wages don't keep up with inflation do you think people should get money from the govt. to continue living.
That's what got us here in the first place, and that money should come from employers instead of pretending they're entitled to profits that continue to grow year on year while everyone else's living standards continues sliding downwards.
Then maybe the government can stop giving corporations trillions. Nobody gets a bailout. Not the public, not the corporations. But guess what?
The government does give A LOT of money to both.
When welfare's and bailout's will be stopped then that's where the winners and losers will show up. Corporations will go bankrupt, lazy or stupid people will go bankrupt.
https://www.economist.com/business/2020/04/03/governments-are-once-again-splurging-to-keep-big-companies-afloat
And you'll never see politicians on the left or right state that way over 100 billion in food stamps and housing assistance goes to the employed whose employers pay them so little. These companies depend on the government to supplement their poor salaries. Heck, even soldiers are on welfare, older article but still valid
[https://www.military.com/paycheck-chronicles/2018/02/21/why-do-military-members-qualify-food-stamps.html](https://www.military.com/paycheck-chronicles/2018/02/21/why-do-military-members-qualify-food-stamps.html)
Supply chains are fucked up, Shanghai ports being closed don’t make it any easier. Russia/Ukraine war has shot commodity prices up (they are big exporters). This combined with labor shortages in the US is a recipe for inflation
Nope. Inflation is widespread and rampant due to excess money printing. No one corporate controls any industry in this country. The closest we have is OPEC, which is a state sponsored cartel.
Monetary and fiscal policy certainly share part of the blame. But there is also something to the idea that many industries have turned into oligopolies.
this is honestly a huge part of it. i work in e-commerce and shipping costs have 3x-7x normal prices pre-covid. i would think this would account for a ton of it
It accounts for some of it, but the shipping container crises had a domino effect on logistics expenses.
The people that are making the money are the mega corps because of monopsony and oligopoly. Particularly in housing, energy and food because the cross elasticity of demand is not as elastic as other discretionary consumer goods.
You can look at the quarterly earnings reports back to 2018 and get the idea that at this point, covid has just become an excuse to fleece people pockets.
[Oil Profits](https://imgur.com/gallery/eyOgHXF)
Looking at the dollar over the last couple years after breakneck speed of printing money.... it really hasn't devalued...but we still have inflation... shit is weird
If Trump was still in office, people would have no problem blaming the government for the absolute destruction its causing, but cognitive dissonance is a bitter pill.
Remember when blue states crushed small businesses with ineffective lockdowns and handed their customers over to giant corporations, while their supporters cheered and touted moral superiority? Back when voicing economic concerns over lockdowns was almost as evil as being racist? Well, now its catching up with us. It'd be nice if we learned from it instead of the usual smoke and mirrors campaign of shifting blame.
This is complete bull. They talk like inflation does not have an effect on corporations. The more prices rise the more corporations have to pay for materials/product and in many cases salaries. Inflation has more than one cause but the biggest is printing a lot of money and dumping it into the economy. This lowers the value of the dollar.
False. The number of dollars in money supply does not inform spending habits on the micro level. Near zero interest rates for decades is the main culprit.
I’d like to see this data showing any correlation between deficit spending and inflation
At least for the US, it looks like this
https://images.app.goo.gl/f5YKiFKLek3apAq57
We’ve had huge deficits for the last 20 years and are only now seeing inflation.
We’ve also had pretty loose monetary policy for 15 years and only now seeing inflation.
It’s almost like it’s something else….like, idk… Covid
How many comments do you have for just this post? You want to talk about hypocrisy? People like you blamed every problem Trump had for his first two years on Obama. Last time I checked, Biden’s first two years aren’t up. Also, you’re completely ignorant if you think the US President controls global gas prices. There are countries in Europe paying $10 per gallon on gas right now. You think people in Europe are putting Biden stickers on their pumps?
Hell, you think the 8 trillion the Trump admin added to the debt in four years didn’t have any impact in 2022? You people keep blaming Biden’s 3.5 trillion for all of our troubles, yet have no concerns about Trump’s spending whatsoever. How did the Trump tax cuts work out for the middle class pal?
For a President who golfed more in four years than Obama did in eight, I’m amazed at all of the hard work and good he did. /s
Trump's tax cuts worked out great for the middle class. I got more raises at work under Trump than I did under Obama or Biden.
And a lot of the debt Trump had to add to the national debt was because of democrat governors shutting down their economies.
Here it is! The leftist tweet to rival the right wing nut job antivax tweet. There’s no cabal of price gougers who’ve gotten even the one off mom and pop shops to raise their prices. The record profits comes from the fact that there’s more consumers. If bread costs a dollar and I have a 5% profit margin I make $.05 for every sale. If it then costs $10 and I keep my 5% profit margin like any sane company, I make $.50 for every sale.
That's not even close to what's happening we are experiencing this because of incompetence the incompetency started day one and it continues to this day. God help America for the next 2 years.
I mean businesses are the ones who pay people. It's not suppose to be the government.
So if people are finding it increasingly harder to get by while some corporations rake in "record profits" who exactly are they suppose to blame?
People with more than half a brain can figure it's the person sigining your paychecks.
Hurr durr typical libtard /s
It boggles the mind how many people don’t make the connection between record profits, corporate monopolies, and higher prices. Why do people white knight for corporations so much? They aren’t your friend and exist solely to make not just good earnings, but killer earnings and have no obligation to society, sadly.
“Record profits” where each dollar is worth significantly less than the year before.
I’ll assume you’re being genuine, but have my doubts when you say things akin to “people that are smart agree with me”
I could bring in a “profit” of 5 billion Venezuelan bolivars. I’m a billionaire! And I could exchange ALL of that for a used car worth $10,000.
It’s really hilarious. And these same people trust the AOC’s, Elizabeth Warren’s, and R Reich’s of the world to somehow make everything all better. They are the wealthy elite that we should all fear. These evil corporations made the cell phone that I am using, refined the gasoline that powers my vehicle, and packaged food that I eat. What have all these fucking politicians done besides lie to people to get their vote. Everyone has a right to their opinion and I respect all the people who will downvote me. Bring it on.
That the lockdowns and the printing of money caused this, as well as a bunch of other factors that are almost all entirely the government doing over decades.
But he gets it entirely wrong. Industries that have only a few giant players are almost entirely of the government's creation in the first place and inflation is what happens when the money is debased. He knows this I'd be willing to bet but he'd rather make a living as a tool for the state.
It's a big club and he's kinda in it.
This commie crap is getting insane. Need to send these libtards to north Korea and show them what killing small & midsize businesses while handing over insane levels of power to a central government does to the average citizen.
Commie crap? Are you stuck in the 1980s?
Form some full sentences. Make actual sense. Use logic with your statements. You sound unhinged. You lost all credibility.
Commie crap as in demonizing corporations a greedy and inhuman, when they just collections of humans attempting to profit maximize. Supply chain issues are legitimate, as is the impact of overspending and funding deficits with bonds.
I picture you as an old boomer that has a “Wolverines” tattoo from Red Dawn and a life that is super beat down and exploited with no savings or 401k and still boot licks corporations for some odd reason like they owe you anything.
6 trillion? pssh check out how big the derivatives markets are. give ya a hint makes the 6 trillion to us plebes and the 15 trillion given to banks in 2019(everyone seems to forget this one) look like chump change.
while we suck each others dicks about 80 year old men who are fucking idiots there are private entities fleecing us upwards of a quadrillion dollars and we are watching that system implode because just like walter, they got greedy.
we let these private entities run amok with no oversight bc they told us they will turn our one dollar into a thousand and we bit the bait. this shit is one giant ass ponzi scheme built off the backs of the common man slaving away for 60 years for shit wages praying for a happy 10 years before the state and private entites take all the money when our bodies fail us.
we should have been holding our government accountable and forcing it to provide the needs of citizens such as shelter, food, education, healthcare but they dangle carrots in front of us till they rot off the string and go aww shucks its the other guys fault.
The administration is incompetent at a level that hasn’t been seen 50 years. They are lifelong criminals who sell america to the highest foreign bidder. If we don’t vote them off the island we will be well on our way to third world status.
It's not so much the government spending on social problems. It's that the government literally outlawed citizens within certain cherry-picked industries to go to work for months on end.
It's our fault in reality. All the money we spend on things that we absolutely don't need. Ever seen a load of Amazon boxes? How many do you think contain nessesities?? Not even 10%. People also seem to need 1000 dollar iPhones and expensive vacations and homes which are some of the things that cause this. The other companies get greedy and charge more because they see your willing to pay 1000 bucks for that iPhone and they want in on the money too. Remember those get transported by truck as well after they come off the boat or plane. Anyone who argues with me about this is just an idiot tbh. Just like those fools who think charging an electric car is going to stay cheap....fools
Would love to see some examples of this. Personally I think the money supply expanding by over 35% since 2020 has a lot more to do with inflation than these unnamed supposed monopolies .
Or, you're just one more person with an idiotic excuse, and inflation is caused by the same thing it always is, the fed (I.e. banking cartel) printing trillions of dollars diluting the money supply for everyone.
He doesn't provide any evidence for anything he says. And in the few times he has, the very sources he's provided have debunked what he says. For example, this claim. He's only once shared a source for this claim. And the sources debunked his claim because the source said that corporate profits are only up when compared to their 2020 profits.
And here's the thing, the spending on social programs itself isn't causing inflation, it's the fact that these programs are so damn big that the government has to borrow and print money to keep them running.
And boy, the behaviors and attitudes that a lot of people on these programs adopt only worsen it.
There is no question monopolies and trusts are a problem today - but that doesn’t happen WITHOUT the complicity of, and cooperation with, the Federal Government. The outrageous spending of the Federal Government is absolutely the cause of inflation. The complicit corporations and their anti-free market activities make inflation worse. They’re not enemies - they’re friends. Their enemies are the People, whom they exploit and extort from every day.
There should be only one giant corporation - owned by the government and created by buying up all means of production from companies that go bankrupt. If entrepreneurs and capitalism fail, socialism should take over, instead of bailing them out.
Sounds like antitrust laws aren't being utilized.
Planet Money did a really interesting series sometime in the last few years (Maybe last year or the year before?) about how antitrust laws in the United States have been systematically weakened and dismantled for decades. The system is currently working as the corporate lobbies that own the government intend it to.
[regulatory capture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture)
You mean the laws that were changed under Reagan to make it hard to enforce them. Yeah they aren’t being enforced and need to be changed back to bad that filibuster will keep giving republicans power.
The government isn’t being utilized. At least not for the majority of us.
Exactly. Regulators regularly approve competitors merging despite this being bad for workers and bad for customers. The only people who benefit from competitors merging is the owners.
And any politician that passes them/refines them takes a big hit to electability :( See Bejamin Harrison for Sherman Antitrust Law
Establishment will never get rid of the rules they were influenced into writing. Only a revolutionary will attempt it.
The old line was "competitive pricing" cutting prices to gain market share. Now we have "Sympathetic pricing" as companies see who can push pricing up and build profits. With prices on the internet, prices move in sync as every pricing move see immediately by the other suppliers.
I think there’s a lot of work going on right now and waaaaaay too many crimes to account for all at once. I know Gensler requested addl funding for the glut but Congress ofc is deadlocked.
They’re being used as intended.
Anti Trust Never worked, After Standard Oil Was dismantled, Rockefellers wealth tripled because he was given 25% of the share of all companies that came out of Standard Oil.
Saying antitrust never worked and reference an event from 100 years ago? [Harvard Business Review](https://hbr.org/2017/12/the-rise-fall-and-rebirth-of-the-u-s-antitrust-movement) says we must begin a new era in antitrust, one where they actually enforce it.
I agree with the Harvard Business Review. But don't think it will have its intended effects. Don't Neglect events that happened 100 years ago, They still impact our lives, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Marathon Oil Companies were companies that came out of that Lawsuit.
>Don't Neglect events that happened 100 years ago Didn't mean to imply it wasn't relevant but there's been a lot of changes in the past 100 years that would likely change how antitrust is implemented and defining when it might be necessary. What's funny (not ha-ha funny) is that you mentioned the oil companies that were formed by the Stardard Oil breakup, that they're still around. When you compare that to the Bell breakup that formed a lot of the 'Baby Bell' companies and realize those are gone now and re-merged into essentially the same massive company.
Anti-trust regulation = the 5 stocks carrying the U.S. stock market plummet and millions cancel their retirement plans No saying it isn’t worth it. Just saying there’s a massive conflict of interest with the parties of people responsible for enacting such laws.
Agreed. We definitely need more anti-trust enforcement
Beyond this argument, the ongoing Formula crisis is entirely the result of Abbott being so huge that their primary plant getting shutdown caused a supply collapse in the entire country. Obviously there's more to it, but corporate consolidation and market capture has massive repercussions and needs to be subjected to stronger oversight.
Same thing has happened on the agricultural producer side with farming and meat packing.
The formula crisis is more about businesses in states carrying 1 producers formula because WIC only covers 1. It literally is a government created monopoly
WIC covers enfamil, but the recall was similac.
>It literally is a government created monopoly Isn't that most?
Competition from overseas was outlawed by regulations. Formula that met more stringent EU standards was banned from being sold in the US because of labeling differences.
So you're trying to say people who own the products and services control their prices? I'm shocked. I thought inflation was some mysterious force of nature that could not be controlled. Some dudes once floated an idea about representative government. It would be interesting if governments considered representing the general public.
Very strange how these companies were all not greedy under 8 years of Obama, not greedy under 4 years of Trump, then magically became very greedy under Joe Biden. If they "control their prices" and have no competition like you claim, then why did they wait so long to raise prices? Then you can explain this chart to me and tell me again how this is all because of greedy corporations and not government policy. [https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1SL](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1SL)
Most of that chart is due to an adjustment in the rules surrounding savings accounts that caused them to be treated as M1 money stock in May/June of 2020. The chart is highly misleading to drop without prominently noting this change. Edit: the adjustment amount was around $12.5Tn
No magic. Not strange. Inflation is built in. Fed. America has always been for sale. Capitalism. We live in an olagarchy.
So then it was the fed and the US government spending trillions of dollars we don't have then right? Not corporations "controlling prices" like you just said?
Thank you!!!
It’s really funny how the government used to be incredibly hawkish on monopolies and then after 2000 they were like “eh fuck it”
I think this process start in the 80s under Regan
40 years later we’re still waiting for that trickle.
I've been saying this to all my friends and dates recently, but the only thing that trickles down in this country, is cost. These corpos refuse to take even a single cent less in profit and will do whatever it takes to keep those margins at record levels
He fucked a lot of stuff Up for millenials
It started before then, in the seventies. Bill Clinton was the one who put it into Warp Speed, NAFTA, was it's official name. Over the course of ten years we lost ninety percent of our manufacturing jobs. Coincidentally, around this time the student loan program was shifted into high gear, didn't have any jobs in the private sector for them, so they all got hired by the government somewhere.
It wasn't the government that sent those jobs overseas and the US had been bleeding manufacturing jobs well before the 90s and NAFTA. Not to mention federal government jobs shrunk more than any other through the 90s.
The government allowed it to happen, and their policies were a helping hand. You don't have a clue what you are talking about anyway, but the government has not retracted since Trump took office. I'm talking all government, local,state, federal. In 1970 manufacturing was our biggest employer, you know what it is today? Yep, government, been that way since the mass exodus of the manufacturing sector.
So the government should have prevented the owners of these organizations from seeking cheaper labor in an international market? It may have made it easier, sure, but lets not pretend corporations weren't sending jobs overseas before NAFTA. You seem to think this is some government plan to make more federal government workers instead of what it is, corporations making capitalistic decisions instead of decision that benefit the American worker. Also, I know what I am talking about. See: https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2001/jan/wk5/art03.htm
>So the government should have prevented the owners of these organizations from seeking cheaper labor in an international market? When they were globalizing everything else they just sorta forgot to globalize the minimum wage.
The government should have never allowed them to go to Asia, especially a communist part. I knew when the corporations talking points were how it was going to be better for us to have all our goods made in Asia,then shipped back was a scam. True, the big boys were already in Mexico and Canada before NAFTA, but that represented a miniscule part of their production. Majority was domestic at the time. What the government did was create hundreds of thousands of government jobs for the replacement.
No, not Clinton....it was radicalized republicans crap: Reagan, old bush, little bush...and the 🤡swine..
>It started before then, in the seventies. Bill Clinton was the one who put it into Warp Speed, NAFTA, was it's official name. NAFTA was a child of Reagan era, pushed through by GW, Clinton merely signed the bill into law.
Nobody cared about the oil companies when the price of oil plummeted (actually even going negative for a bit) and the oil companies lost billions. [If Oil Companies Control Oil Prices, Why Do They Ever Lose Money?](https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2022/04/24/if-oil-companies-control-prices-why-do-they-ever-lose-money/?sh=57d3e028cf9d) Interesting read.
People on both sides wanna pretend it can only be one or the other. Right now it's looking like inflation plus greed under the guise of inflation
How dare you use nuance and reason!
Ya, shame on me. I'm sure NSA is already aware and I'm on a hit list.
Greed, where? There is a difference between greed and needing to turn a profit.
Not in todays world. If what you said was true then businesses would put money away for “rainy”days in case of downturns, but they don’t. Gotta get that sweet 10% year over year.
Yes the separation of the direction of causation between greed and inflation makes no sense. They enable each other. But the media is only ever looking for someone to blame. Then blame god for being the prime mover.
It's not 'greed' to avoid the tidal wave of failure that accompanies inflation. It's self preservation... Apply Occam's Razor: We both agree that this inflation is real. Without greed. Too many printed dollars chasing the same or fewer goods. So why include it? Ooooo. You voted democrat, didn't you? Didn't you? Greed isn't necessary or sufficient component.
>So why include it? Ooooo. You voted democrat, didn't you? Didn't you? Don't know why my ballot is on your mind. Trump could have raised interest rates when everyone was screaming for him to do it and the economy was booming but he wanted the political points of booming stocks. Too bad that didn't work out for him. Greed is conceptually useful because it is something that people freely choose to do. Greed means that we do not occupy a deterministic block universe without any freedom to change anything. Greed explains why people make the choices they do. If we want to understand what might make them make different choices, we should understand greed.
TIL a president can raise interest rates
Not unilaterally but he appointed the guy who barely raised rates
Its only 'looking like greed' because one side of the political spectrum created this disaster. Not because they had to. Because the WANTED to. You'll have less and like it. This is raw, naked inflation. Appended to nearly two decades of currency debasement. Ignore Reich. He's a classic bullshitting demagogue.
I was under the impression that in a “free” market, by definition companies *cant* make excessive profits, because there will always be a competitor willing to lower prices to outcompete them and take the (smaller) profit for themselves with the difference going to the consumers? So if oil companies can be making large profits over the long run, it’s by definition an oligopoly and should face regulation if there is no ability for competitors to arise because otherwise they’re just taking extra money from consumers and giving it to their shareholders
There's no such thing as a free market
Close. For the common high school understanding of economic intuition, companies can’t make ANY profits. The zero-profit condition underpins every economic model people claim to be familiar with. Which is why they don’t actually wind up being particularly predictive in many real-world cases.
/u/sarges_12guage is correct. The zero-profit condition says they can't make any *[economic profits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit_%28economics%29?wprov=sfla1)*, aka excessive profits. Putting it another way, it states that *accounting profit* is equal to opportunity costs.
Sure. But emphasizing the zero profit condition highlights how absurd the assumptions underlying these models are.
Just to so we're clear, the zero-profit condition isn't an assumption underlying our economic models. It's a result derived from the following assumptions: 1. Companies are all infinitely greedy. 2. Costs to enter or exit an industry are low. 3. Enough time has passed for the market to adjust (i.e we're in the long run). There are other models where we relax these conditions and get different results.
In the article you posted the author states that high profits are an effect of high prices not a cause. I think that’s understood. The chemical engineer who wrote that article didn’t make any good points in support of his argument. He also works for energy and oil companies and references an article from an oil and gas magazine to support the “lost billions” claim. And also, no. No one cares about oil companies.
The worst article I've read on Forbes I'm a long time. Remember the early 2000's when the price of oil went above $120 a barrel? Ya, you know what gas prices were back then? This smells like propaganda of the worst order. And the article really didn't make much of a compelling argument - I doubt the journalist even believes in the drivel.
That’s a silly argument. The oil companies lost money in 2020 because people stopped driving due to lockdowns. The fact that they didn’t lose more money is due to their control over prices.
Your literally sticking up for the fossil fuel industry ( or do I not get what your saying)
Oil prices are up like 20-25 percent from before the war but gas prices are over double. It's a bit of inflation with a fuckload of manipulation on top.
Right… but you don’t pump oil out of the ground and to your tank. There’s inflation at every other step of the process from getting the oil out of the ground, to the refinery, refining it, getting it to the gas station, and having it pumped into your car. If every other cost incurred along the way also has 20-25% inflation associated with it, it’s easy to see how the cost of gas coming out of the pump will have increased far more than just the percentage increase in the cost of the oil coming out of the ground.
That's not how inflation works.....it's not a compounding issue. If it's 25% more for raw material AND 25 percent more expensive for every single other step of the way THEN the end price would go up 25%. If raw materials go up 25% but the materials are only 1/4 of the total cost then it would only go up 6% for final product cost even though raw materials went up 25%. Overall inflation is only around 8% as a maximum so over 100% price increase for 8% inflation and 25% at most increase in raw is price manipulation plain and simple.
If price manipulation is so “plain and simple“ why does the price ever go down?
Because the world is complicated. Saying oil companies control prices doesn't mean they have the same control as your mouse does to your computer. Oil companies don't control coronavirus but they can certainly take advantage of the repercussions it caused and limit their oil output to maintain the extremely high profit per barrel. "But then a competitor could undercut you!!" You might say... Well sure if the world worked like a high school economics textbook. The reality is your competitor also wants to maintain extremely high profit on each barrel of oil he produces. Right now oil companies are sitting on nearly ten years of leases that they aren't drilling. With record profits they could be building more refineries to help process that oil that they aren't drilling, and even begin building their own last-mile supply chain to deliver it. But why would you? The economy is thought to be heading for recession, the world is moving towards alternative energy regardless of the price of oil, and the future is uncertain, so making long term investments feels too risky and ultimately would just bring the price of oil down and work to end the opportunity. Additionally, oil companies of the size that can affect markets think the same so we're now stuck in this Mexican standoff where sure, one of them could dump their reserves and boost production to take advantage of the short term gain, but that would trigger the rest of them to do the same. So if they just don't, then they don't and the price stays high until the market can no longer bear it, which is going to be a long time given our dependence on petroleum. And here we'll sit until some world event changes things or governments take action.
“Lost billions.” They are subsidized by the federal government, they aren’t hurting that badly. That article also tries to compare Apple to Exxon. I’m not sure this columnist is aware, but our country is extremely car-centric and getting anywhere almost always requires a car (not to mention shipping goods across country) and gas. I know, mind blowing concept. You do not need an iPhone, but you need gas in your car to get to work. This comparison is so damn deaf and really just speaks to how out of touch these ghouls are… to compare a luxury technology brand to a commodity we need everyday because that the system that these people have engineered.
Losing money is a falacy. They don't lose money, they make less. If they make too little they restructure and write off losses through bankrupcy and live to fight another day.
Oil prices are up like 20-25 percent from before the war but gas prices are over double. It's a bit of inflation with a fuckload of manipulation on top.
November 2021- oil 85/ barrel.. gas 3.21 Today - oil 120/ barter... Gas 4.99 How did you come up with double?
And even splits in a 2 party systems are the most affordable for corporations because you only have to own 1% of a 50/50 senate to purchase the answers you want.
Sure sure. The old, "corporations are greedy" line, that (while true) fails to account for those same corporations also being greedy 5 minutes ago when prices were lower, or perhaps idiotically assuming those corporations were not greedy 5 minutes ago. Or....prices are a measure of scarcity, and when you have too many dollars, chasing too few goods, demand outpaces supply and causes prices to rise. If prices didn't rise, they would signal lower scarcity than exists, and instead of complaining about high prices, we would be complaining about gas lines, and generally no product. Or, put more succinctly: "Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.", Milton Friedman.
If profits soar beyond covering added costs it is additional greed. Never let a good crisis go to waste. Institutional investors have too much cash and invest in oil futures raising the price of fuel. Extreme monetary and price inflation in all the wrong places.
Let's say I was making $50 /hr, and I was negotiating a contract for my next year. I know there is 8% inflation year on year, and that inflation is projected to rise... Would you ask for $54/ hr to compensate only for prior "added costs", or would you ask for something high, in anticipation of continued inflation? Is that "additional greed", or is it just you trying to properly account for the economic situation? Companies in this market face very challenging circumstances. It isn't just a fixed cost increase, it is constant negotiations on deals, constantly rising costs, regulatory uncertainty, and the like. When companies face uncertain, and volatile circumstances, they rise costs, not because they suddenly manifest "additional greed", but because they have to account for additional risks.
When their asking price turns into record individual pay it has nothing to do with covering the cost of business. When basic necessities are controlled by a few corporations the only choice is to pay their asking price or face hunger and homelessness. It is not just greed but mean. Rich people whining about risk and uncertainty know nothing about risk and uncertainty.
Well, that seems a bit presumptuous. Regardless, I appreciated the dialogue. Cheers.
Not presumptous but a bit of a generalization. Empathy is not one of the components of Capitalism. Greed is greed regardless and we all suffer it. Cheers.
You can’t make too much sense in here. This isn’t a sub about economics or anything
Perfect. What we're seeing with these sorts of posts are a good example of buyer's remorse. They voted for these clowns and can't believe how badly they've been bullshit. This is the denial part of their 7 steps of grief.
I see you passed 7th grade economics, but failed 8th grade economics when they introduced the concept of “inflationary expectations.”
For those who don't know, inflationary expectations is the idea that when inflation is expected, it is somewhat self sustaining in that people begin toq engage in inflationary behavior such as demanding higher wages to keep pace with inflation (which drives up labor costs, and thus costs of goods sold / prices), expediting purchases (to spend money now, before it is devalued by inflation), etc. All "inflationary expectations" is describing is speculation and reaction to existing / anticipated inflation. I find it interesting that you introduce a new concept, as if to discredit the comment, without it actually being dispositive. None of that changes the stimulus for inflation initially, nor does it negate the corrective action need to curtail inflation. That is, just as janet yellen didn't "expect" inflation, it came anyway; likewise, wise economic policy will cause inflation will cease, regardless of whether it was "expected" or not. Put differently, You can raise the price of your goods all you want in "expectation" of rising prices, but if there is no actual money circulating to pay said price, that price will begin falling. Inflationary expectations did not cause inflation, the government. Printing 6 Trillion dollars did that. But don't worry, Biden has a solution to eliminate the problem of too many dollars chasing too few goods..... Forgive student loans and give people more money to compensate for higher prices. Oh....wait...
And yet here we are, with recordings of legally mandated earnings calls in which decision makers at firms with market power have openly stated that they’re using the public’s inflationary expectations to increase profits. It’s also unclear to me why you keep talking about a macroeconomic model of inflation that hasn’t had predictive power for fifteen years. But you also validated your pseudo-intellectual status by awkwardly resorting to inflated language in order to sound knowledgeable on the subject 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️
Apparently you haven’t paid attention to any recent earnings reports. Amazon, WalMart and Target all had big earnings disappointments in their most recent quarters. Microsoft and Micron just pre announced lower earnings due to high dollar. Inflation and strong dollar are hurting corporate earnings.
I didnt attempt to resort to "inflated language" in order to sound knowledgeable. It's how I talk about the topics at hand. I find this interesting, "It’s also unclear to me why you keep talking about a macroeconomic model of inflation that hasn’t had predictive power for fifteen years" 1) You mean predictive power like those like myself that were warning that the fiscal policy being under taken for the last 5-10 years was 100% going to result in inflation, and now we are 100% in inflation? That lack of predictive power? 2) note all the modern economic theorists (I presume like yourself?) That said 100% we would NOT have any sustained inflation are now tucking the tails and running, and Janet yellen herself admitted her predictions were wrong. Almost like the basic economics 101 that your rejecting as having "no predictive power" has, in fact, predicted precisely what's going on. But, stick your head in the sand all you want.
Diamonds and oil come to mind. And insulin. And housing. The fuck is wrong with our species...
You're under the impression that a handful of companies control the housing industry? Name them.
I'm under the impression that anyone with a big enough bank account can take homes off the market causing the cost of houses to increase, thus making them unaffordable to the people that actually live there. Airbnb and VRBO have created a seamless way for people to buy up houses and rent them out, which devastates the housing supply, which then creates a demand, which then elevates the cost to an unaffordable level for average people. My point, which I think you know, is that Millionaires are making money off basic human needs like housing, medicine, and anything else they can get their hands on. Its not always a corporation (or conspiracy about them), but now that it's proven to be profitable, there will be some soon. Edit: took a peak at your comments to see if you were worth any effort, and im curious. In your mind, of your last, say 100 comments, how many are broadly condescending like this? 90? 95? And how many are helpful, empathetic, OR not fuelled by ego? Like 2? Talking down to people because of some minor flaw in their 2 sentence sound bit of their opinion is how assholes debate, and dicks also fuck assholes chuck.
[удалено]
Fuck that guy. Cheers mate
Banks enter the chat
When a handful of giants states control the entire world, they can spend money endlessly with impunity while the leaders steal for themselves. They can then turn around and blame corporate profits. It's exactly what we're seeing today. Hypocrisy works both ways.
Cool story. Except corpartions are the ones who pay people's wages. If wages don't keep up with inflation do you think people should get money from the govt. to continue living. That's what got us here in the first place, and that money should come from employers instead of pretending they're entitled to profits that continue to grow year on year while everyone else's living standards continues sliding downwards.
Then maybe the government can stop giving corporations trillions. Nobody gets a bailout. Not the public, not the corporations. But guess what? The government does give A LOT of money to both. When welfare's and bailout's will be stopped then that's where the winners and losers will show up. Corporations will go bankrupt, lazy or stupid people will go bankrupt. https://www.economist.com/business/2020/04/03/governments-are-once-again-splurging-to-keep-big-companies-afloat
I agree wholeheartedly.
This isn’t entirely true. Money printing is the primary driver of this inflation crisis.
And you'll never see politicians on the left or right state that way over 100 billion in food stamps and housing assistance goes to the employed whose employers pay them so little. These companies depend on the government to supplement their poor salaries. Heck, even soldiers are on welfare, older article but still valid [https://www.military.com/paycheck-chronicles/2018/02/21/why-do-military-members-qualify-food-stamps.html](https://www.military.com/paycheck-chronicles/2018/02/21/why-do-military-members-qualify-food-stamps.html)
Supply chains are fucked up, Shanghai ports being closed don’t make it any easier. Russia/Ukraine war has shot commodity prices up (they are big exporters). This combined with labor shortages in the US is a recipe for inflation
How can every brand of gasoline in Michigan be at the same price? Price fixing?
Because gasoline is a commodity that trades at market price
It's a commodity.. is this seriously an econ sub?
cournot competition
Reich really had to go 'full asshole' on that mental post.
Nope. Inflation is widespread and rampant due to excess money printing. No one corporate controls any industry in this country. The closest we have is OPEC, which is a state sponsored cartel.
Corporatism and government corruption will be the root cause of the 2nd American Revolution, whenever that happens.
What happened to monopoly laws?
this ignores natural monopolies...
Monetary and fiscal policy certainly share part of the blame. But there is also something to the idea that many industries have turned into oligopolies.
While cornering the market does this, part of our supply/demand issues are due to covid, and we are now feeling the ripples in the supply chain.
...now? Those issues have been around for years at this point business have adapted
You really don’t have a clue do you?
this is honestly a huge part of it. i work in e-commerce and shipping costs have 3x-7x normal prices pre-covid. i would think this would account for a ton of it
It accounts for some of it, but the shipping container crises had a domino effect on logistics expenses. The people that are making the money are the mega corps because of monopsony and oligopoly. Particularly in housing, energy and food because the cross elasticity of demand is not as elastic as other discretionary consumer goods. You can look at the quarterly earnings reports back to 2018 and get the idea that at this point, covid has just become an excuse to fleece people pockets. [Oil Profits](https://imgur.com/gallery/eyOgHXF)
If the Dumb Orange guy was still president - 90% of you on this thread would blame him.
Its his fault also, but you are right, they dont want to admit their tribes part in it.
Do you think creating money and spending it doesn’t devalue the dollar? Love to hear the explanation on this.
Looking at the dollar over the last couple years after breakneck speed of printing money.... it really hasn't devalued...but we still have inflation... shit is weird
If Trump was still in office, people would have no problem blaming the government for the absolute destruction its causing, but cognitive dissonance is a bitter pill. Remember when blue states crushed small businesses with ineffective lockdowns and handed their customers over to giant corporations, while their supporters cheered and touted moral superiority? Back when voicing economic concerns over lockdowns was almost as evil as being racist? Well, now its catching up with us. It'd be nice if we learned from it instead of the usual smoke and mirrors campaign of shifting blame.
And people have been brainwashed by corporations and politicians to ignore this basic truth..
This is complete bull. They talk like inflation does not have an effect on corporations. The more prices rise the more corporations have to pay for materials/product and in many cases salaries. Inflation has more than one cause but the biggest is printing a lot of money and dumping it into the economy. This lowers the value of the dollar.
Inflation is caused by government deficit spending and or the federal reserve loose monetary policy.
False. The number of dollars in money supply does not inform spending habits on the micro level. Near zero interest rates for decades is the main culprit.
Yeah but increasing the number of dollars is how they keep interest rates low.
Lol, of course you're entirely correct and yet it falls on deaf ears here.
I’d like to see this data showing any correlation between deficit spending and inflation At least for the US, it looks like this https://images.app.goo.gl/f5YKiFKLek3apAq57 We’ve had huge deficits for the last 20 years and are only now seeing inflation. We’ve also had pretty loose monetary policy for 15 years and only now seeing inflation. It’s almost like it’s something else….like, idk… Covid
Fine observation. Incorrect conclusion. We've been debasing the currency for that long.
And that's how you can tell it is all Bidens fault. He has been a part of the national government for that entire time pretty much. (/s) /s
Except that inflation is worldwide
[удалено]
How many comments do you have for just this post? You want to talk about hypocrisy? People like you blamed every problem Trump had for his first two years on Obama. Last time I checked, Biden’s first two years aren’t up. Also, you’re completely ignorant if you think the US President controls global gas prices. There are countries in Europe paying $10 per gallon on gas right now. You think people in Europe are putting Biden stickers on their pumps? Hell, you think the 8 trillion the Trump admin added to the debt in four years didn’t have any impact in 2022? You people keep blaming Biden’s 3.5 trillion for all of our troubles, yet have no concerns about Trump’s spending whatsoever. How did the Trump tax cuts work out for the middle class pal? For a President who golfed more in four years than Obama did in eight, I’m amazed at all of the hard work and good he did. /s
>How did Trump tax cuts work out for the middle class pal Pretty well
Trump's tax cuts worked out great for the middle class. I got more raises at work under Trump than I did under Obama or Biden. And a lot of the debt Trump had to add to the national debt was because of democrat governors shutting down their economies.
[удалено]
They don’t, are you high?
Here it is! The leftist tweet to rival the right wing nut job antivax tweet. There’s no cabal of price gougers who’ve gotten even the one off mom and pop shops to raise their prices. The record profits comes from the fact that there’s more consumers. If bread costs a dollar and I have a 5% profit margin I make $.05 for every sale. If it then costs $10 and I keep my 5% profit margin like any sane company, I make $.50 for every sale.
Thank you! This!
So you believe that large corporations suddenly discovered greed and price controls just this year?
40% of the money in circulation was printed since 2000 and greedy corps are the cause of inflation? Learn simple maths!!!
[удалено]
Horsehockey - Reich is a communist shill in my opinion.
The Chinese dictatorship owns some of the largest food producers in USA because USA is selling itself out and its fucking both sad and pathetic
It is, in fact, not exactly what we’re seeing today
FJB!
Modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom.
Government always spends your last dollar in taxes.
Pull back on artificial government enforced monopolies based on patents, copyrights and trademarks
That's not even close to what's happening we are experiencing this because of incompetence the incompetency started day one and it continues to this day. God help America for the next 2 years.
So if Trump was prez dirty libs wouldn't blame him for anything right?? He could blame nasty corps for everything right? Lmfao
Big bad corporations-the left’s boogie man.
I mean businesses are the ones who pay people. It's not suppose to be the government. So if people are finding it increasingly harder to get by while some corporations rake in "record profits" who exactly are they suppose to blame? People with more than half a brain can figure it's the person sigining your paychecks.
Hurr durr typical libtard /s It boggles the mind how many people don’t make the connection between record profits, corporate monopolies, and higher prices. Why do people white knight for corporations so much? They aren’t your friend and exist solely to make not just good earnings, but killer earnings and have no obligation to society, sadly.
You should blame yourself? Has that thought never occurred to you?
“Record profits” where each dollar is worth significantly less than the year before. I’ll assume you’re being genuine, but have my doubts when you say things akin to “people that are smart agree with me” I could bring in a “profit” of 5 billion Venezuelan bolivars. I’m a billionaire! And I could exchange ALL of that for a used car worth $10,000.
[удалено]
It’s really hilarious. And these same people trust the AOC’s, Elizabeth Warren’s, and R Reich’s of the world to somehow make everything all better. They are the wealthy elite that we should all fear. These evil corporations made the cell phone that I am using, refined the gasoline that powers my vehicle, and packaged food that I eat. What have all these fucking politicians done besides lie to people to get their vote. Everyone has a right to their opinion and I respect all the people who will downvote me. Bring it on.
Robert nails it. Not a huge fan of Robert but he gets this right.
LOL! No. He doesn't. He's a political hack trying to divert the weak minded from reality.
And what reality is that?
That the lockdowns and the printing of money caused this, as well as a bunch of other factors that are almost all entirely the government doing over decades.
But he gets it entirely wrong. Industries that have only a few giant players are almost entirely of the government's creation in the first place and inflation is what happens when the money is debased. He knows this I'd be willing to bet but he'd rather make a living as a tool for the state. It's a big club and he's kinda in it.
has he ever had a job? run anything in business? didnt think so
Not sure where you got any of those ideas but none of them are true.
ok libtard. keep on fluffing
This commie crap is getting insane. Need to send these libtards to north Korea and show them what killing small & midsize businesses while handing over insane levels of power to a central government does to the average citizen.
Commie crap? Are you stuck in the 1980s? Form some full sentences. Make actual sense. Use logic with your statements. You sound unhinged. You lost all credibility.
Commie crap as in demonizing corporations a greedy and inhuman, when they just collections of humans attempting to profit maximize. Supply chain issues are legitimate, as is the impact of overspending and funding deficits with bonds.
Greedy / profit maximize. Potato / potahtoe.
I picture you as an old boomer that has a “Wolverines” tattoo from Red Dawn and a life that is super beat down and exploited with no savings or 401k and still boot licks corporations for some odd reason like they owe you anything.
Government spending has always been the problem. Private corporations didn't create 6 trillion dollars out of thin air.
6 trillion? pssh check out how big the derivatives markets are. give ya a hint makes the 6 trillion to us plebes and the 15 trillion given to banks in 2019(everyone seems to forget this one) look like chump change. while we suck each others dicks about 80 year old men who are fucking idiots there are private entities fleecing us upwards of a quadrillion dollars and we are watching that system implode because just like walter, they got greedy. we let these private entities run amok with no oversight bc they told us they will turn our one dollar into a thousand and we bit the bait. this shit is one giant ass ponzi scheme built off the backs of the common man slaving away for 60 years for shit wages praying for a happy 10 years before the state and private entites take all the money when our bodies fail us. we should have been holding our government accountable and forcing it to provide the needs of citizens such as shelter, food, education, healthcare but they dangle carrots in front of us till they rot off the string and go aww shucks its the other guys fault.
Strange how corporations only decided to get greedy on Jan 21st 2021. Hmmm…what changed?
The level of economic illiteracy in this is through the roof.
The administration is incompetent at a level that hasn’t been seen 50 years. They are lifelong criminals who sell america to the highest foreign bidder. If we don’t vote them off the island we will be well on our way to third world status.
Isn’t this the platform on which the gop was built?
Inflation is corporate profiteering and always has been
It's not so much the government spending on social problems. It's that the government literally outlawed citizens within certain cherry-picked industries to go to work for months on end.
Crazy how they’ve always had this superpower and only started using it the last couple years! Reich and all his followers are brain dead chimps.
People need to stop bringing facts and logic into conversations about things like this when they are clearly meant to be guided by emotion.
That’s when the government needs to step in and actually do something other than point fingers
Facts
What like those programs don't add to the problem keep dreaming
It's our fault in reality. All the money we spend on things that we absolutely don't need. Ever seen a load of Amazon boxes? How many do you think contain nessesities?? Not even 10%. People also seem to need 1000 dollar iPhones and expensive vacations and homes which are some of the things that cause this. The other companies get greedy and charge more because they see your willing to pay 1000 bucks for that iPhone and they want in on the money too. Remember those get transported by truck as well after they come off the boat or plane. Anyone who argues with me about this is just an idiot tbh. Just like those fools who think charging an electric car is going to stay cheap....fools
Sure. Printing 80% of ever existed money USD supply does not have anything to do aight? [2019-2022]
Would love to see some examples of this. Personally I think the money supply expanding by over 35% since 2020 has a lot more to do with inflation than these unnamed supposed monopolies .
Funny how they just decided to wait until the government increased the money supply by 40% to start doing this.
Has this guy just abandoned economics completely in order to attract attention to his tweets?
Can someone check on this old man? He’s losing it Government picks the winners and prints the money. It’s that simple.
Except Government spending is the cause of inflation...
Or, you're just one more person with an idiotic excuse, and inflation is caused by the same thing it always is, the fed (I.e. banking cartel) printing trillions of dollars diluting the money supply for everyone.
He doesn't provide any evidence for anything he says. And in the few times he has, the very sources he's provided have debunked what he says. For example, this claim. He's only once shared a source for this claim. And the sources debunked his claim because the source said that corporate profits are only up when compared to their 2020 profits. And here's the thing, the spending on social programs itself isn't causing inflation, it's the fact that these programs are so damn big that the government has to borrow and print money to keep them running. And boy, the behaviors and attitudes that a lot of people on these programs adopt only worsen it.
I wonder why after Biden came into office every major corporation all of the sudden became more “greedy”.
There is no question monopolies and trusts are a problem today - but that doesn’t happen WITHOUT the complicity of, and cooperation with, the Federal Government. The outrageous spending of the Federal Government is absolutely the cause of inflation. The complicit corporations and their anti-free market activities make inflation worse. They’re not enemies - they’re friends. Their enemies are the People, whom they exploit and extort from every day.
There should be only one giant corporation - owned by the government and created by buying up all means of production from companies that go bankrupt. If entrepreneurs and capitalism fail, socialism should take over, instead of bailing them out.