Greedflation

[TexasTiger 12,915]

What to do about it?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/19/us-inflation-caused-by-corporate-profits

[SaltyTiger 7,813]

ICHY thoughts might be interesting but he/she gone MIA lately. Something goes up and difficulty in coming down. Always go back to the early 90’s and remember what Hurricane Andrew did to plywood/sheet goods. Good stuff here Tex. Lots of people still not batting an eye at prices for some items.

https://www.denverpost.com/2023/12/14/increased-prices-inflation-corporate-greed/
 

“The only way that consumers can stop being exploited is to not buy items that have irrationally increased in price. One of my lines in the sand is that I refuse to pay the standard shelf price of $5.49 for a 10 oz. bag of Tostitos Scoops. I will either wait until that product comes on sale, purchase another brand or go without.

The objective of business is to get as much money out of the consumer as possible. This is the foundation of capitalism. Don’t be a sucker. So long as American consumers continue to pay ridiculous prices for “

 

[AU9377 4,948]

2 hours ago, SaltyTiger said:

ICHY thoughts might be interesting but he/she gone MIA lately. Something goes up and difficulty in coming down. Always go back to the early 90’s and remember what Hurricane Andrew did to plywood/sheet goods. Good stuff here Tex. Lots of people still not batting an eye at prices for some items.

https://www.denverpost.com/2023/12/14/increased-prices-inflation-corporate-greed/
 

“The only way that consumers can stop being exploited is to not buy items that have irrationally increased in price. One of my lines in the sand is that I refuse to pay the standard shelf price of $5.49 for a 10 oz. bag of Tostitos Scoops. I will either wait until that product comes on sale, purchase another brand or go without.

The objective of business is to get as much money out of the consumer as possible. This is the foundation of capitalism. Don’t be a sucker. So long as American consumers continue to pay ridiculous prices for “

 

This is true.  Unfortunately, we are a spoiled nation of consumers.  I have been telling people for years now, if you want the price of steak to come down, stop buying it. 

That said, corporate greed is unlike anything we have ever encountered in the history of this country. 

[SaltyTiger 7,813]

5 minutes ago, AU9377 said:

This is true.  Unfortunately, we are a spoiled nation of consumers.  I have been telling people for years now, if you want the price of steak to come down, stop buying it. 

That said, corporate greed is unlike anything we have ever encountered in the history of this country. 

Steak and like products are easy to cut back on. Never been one to be up on prices until retirement/covid. Since have noticed how ridiculously high everything seems to be. Shocked at new clothing cost and disgusted with quality. 
 

Have not cut back on steak but be darned before I pay the price asked for some of the seasonings. 

[TexasTiger 12,915]

3 hours ago, SaltyTiger said:

ICHY thoughts might be interesting but he/she gone MIA lately. Something goes up and difficulty in coming down. Always go back to the early 90’s and remember what Hurricane Andrew did to plywood/sheet goods. Good stuff here Tex. Lots of people still not batting an eye at prices for some items.

https://www.denverpost.com/2023/12/14/increased-prices-inflation-corporate-greed/
 

“The only way that consumers can stop being exploited is to not buy items that have irrationally increased in price. One of my lines in the sand is that I refuse to pay the standard shelf price of $5.49 for a 10 oz. bag of Tostitos Scoops. I will either wait until that product comes on sale, purchase another brand or go without.

The objective of business is to get as much money out of the consumer as possible. This is the foundation of capitalism. Don’t be a sucker. So long as American consumers continue to pay ridiculous prices for “

 

There’s effective collusion going on.

[SaltyTiger 7,813]

1 hour ago, TexasTiger said:

There’s effective collusion going on.

It is all about power/control.

[I_M4_AU 7,850]

1 minute ago, SaltyTiger said:

It is all about power/control.

Greedflation has been going on for centuries also known a price gouging. 

At least this would be an excuse for Biden totally screwing things up like he has and I believe that is the purpose of the article.

[SaltyTiger 7,813]

2 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

Greedflation has been going on for centuries also known a price gouging. 

At least this would be an excuse for Biden totally screwing things up like he has and I believe that is the purpose of the article.

Just trying to sound like ICHY. Do you think Trump would have controlled recent inflation more so than Joe? 

[homersapien 11,381]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/12/01/biden-price-gouging-inflation/

Biden turns up pressure on corporate ‘price gouging’ as 2024 nears

 

President Biden blasted corporate “price gouging” more forcefully this week than ever before, reflecting a renewed administration effort to respond to widespread voter discontent over the economy as next year’s election looms.

After weeks of internal meetings led by White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, Biden aides recently pitched the president on a plan to sharply rebuke firms for not lowering prices despite record profits, according to three people with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect internal deliberations. The president liked the idea and quickly approved it, the people said.

The new approach comes in part as a response to consistently poor marks from voters over Biden’s handling of the economy, even though inflation is dropping from last year’s spike and as corporate profits remain surprisingly high. But the effort is not without its risks: Republicans and even some Democratic economists, for instance, largely dispute that corporate “greed” is responsible for any economy-wide price hikes.

In remarks Monday, Biden struck his most populist tone yet in assailing firms for not lowering prices even as supply chains have healed. “Let me be clear: To any corporation that has not brought their prices back down — even as inflation has come down, even [as] supply chains have been rebuilt — it’s time to stop the price gouging,” he said in a speech about supply chains.

On Thursday, he followed up those comments with a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, reiterating that message.

Biden’s approach was buttressed by a federal report this week that corporate profits jumped in the most recent quarter, although they had been expected to decline. Corporate profits exceeded labor costs in the most recent quarter as part of inflation for the first time in 18 months, according to Mike Konczal, director of macroeconomic analysis at the Roosevelt Institute, a center-left think tank. In the most recent quarter, corporate profits accounted for slightly more than 15 percent of national income, representing a substantial increase from last year, when corporations earned close to $3 trillion in profit.

White House aides say the president’s remarks are part of a broader effort to pressure large companies to do more to lower prices when they can. One White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe administration thinking, pointed out that producer prices have cooled markedly, with some firms seeing their costs decline without resulting in lower prices for consumers.

It is unclear how aggressive the president will be in his attempt to jawbone corporations over price gouging, and the White House declined to comment when asked if Biden would aim to identify specific corporations for criticism. Still, the White House official highlighted the actions of Walmart, which recently announced lower costs.

“The president will aggressively use the bully pulpit to call out the fact some companies are not passing on savings to American consumers,” the White House official said. “Even though the pandemic disruptions are behind us, some companies are keeping margins very high and his view is that some of those savings should be passed on.”

The tactic partly reflects White House frustration over negative economic polling despite what Biden aides see as a strong economy. Unemployment remains low, the economy is growing at a rapid clip, and inflation has been steadily easing for more than a year. Yet the administration’s attempts to convert these positive economic results into political advantages do not appear to be working, with polls showing that even Democratic and independent voters dislike Biden’s handling of the economy. A New York Times/Sienna poll released last month showed that even most Democrats who supported Biden in 2020 do not believe the economy is either “excellent” or “good.”

While the White House has tried promoting its successes, a chorus of liberal advocates has long pushed the administration to instead align itself with the discontent over high prices and try to direct that ire against large corporations. Spearheading this push has been the Groundwork Collaborative, a think tank led by Lindsay Owens, who previously served as a top aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Owens has championed this approach for more than two years, and her staff has compiled evidence from hundreds of corporate earnings reports to provide support for their case.

Biden has taken some steps in this direction — criticizing consolidation in the agricultural sector and the oil industry, for instance, and launching an initiative aimed at cracking down on “junk fees” across a range of industries. But many on the left have wanted him to go further.

“Americans are really upset about this: The polling on this is substantial, particularly among independents. Everything suggests this is the right strategy for the White House both substantively and politically,” Owens said.

Former president Donald Trump attempted to appeal to young people by criticizing Biden’s “disastrous economy” in a Newsweek op-ed Wednesday.

Economists disagree over the extent to which price gouging really is leading to broad-based price hikes.

Most economists have pointed to higher labor costs, elevated energy prices and snarled supply chains to explain the surge in post-pandemic inflation. Corporate profits are often invested, generating long-term economic growth by improving productive capacity. Corporate profits also surged in the early 2010s — a time with no measurable surge in inflation.

“It’s a third-order issue at best,” said Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank. “We have had a fundamental mismatch between supply and demand, and that’s why we’ve had four-decade-high inflation. It has nothing to do with price gouging.”

Jason Furman, who served as a top economist in the Obama administration, said he supports the administration’s outstanding efforts to break up corporate monopolies but sees pushing on “profiteering” to likely do little to lower consumer prices.

“More vigorous antitrust is a good thing, but it won’t do anything noticeable about inflation on any reasonable time frame,” Furman said.

Still, Konczal, of the Roosevelt Institute, pointed to data showing that corporate profits are at or near record highs for the last half-century — and defended the president’s attempts to call attention to that trend.

“It’s a really good time for us to think through why there are such high levels of corporate profits even as inflation is normalizing and supply chains are coming back online,” Konczal said. “It’s worthy of attention.”

Edited January 20 by homersapien

[I_M4_AU 7,850]

10 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

Just trying to sound like ICHY. Do you think Trump would have controlled recent inflation more so than Joe? 

Probably, but who knows.  Do you think Russia would have invaded Ukraine if Trump was in office?  Do you think Iran would have the money to supply their proxies Hamas, Hezbulla and the Houthis if Trump was in office.  So many questions.

ETA: did you see Homer’s article?  It all fits now doesn’t it

Edited January 20 by I_M4_AU

[TexasTiger 12,915]

Just now, I_M4_AU said:

Probably, but who knows.  Do you think Russia would have invaded Ukraine if Trump was in office?  Do you think Iran would have the money to supply their proxies Hamas, Hezbulla and the Houthis if Trump was in office.  So many questions.

Kyiv would be Russian now. Trump would vacation with Putin in Odessa. Oligarchs would be funding the construction of a Trump resort there.

[I_M4_AU 7,850]

1 minute ago, TexasTiger said:

Kyiv would be Russian now. Trump would vacation with Putin in Odessa. Oligarchs would be funding the construction of a Trump resort there.

More BS speculation.  Biden is weak and that is why we’re closer to WWIII than ever before.

[TexasTiger 12,915]

1 minute ago, I_M4_AU said:

More BS speculation.  Biden is weak and that is why we’re closer to WWIII than ever before.

Trump’s cool, measured decision making will keep us safe.

[SaltyTiger 7,813]

14 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

ETA: did you see Homer’s article?  It all fits now doesn’t it

Of course. Brother Homer has an article for everything. Way I read the Biden Administration is frustrated politically because people do not see our economy in the hunky dory fashion they do. That means a loss of votes. Hence, Biden puts on a show of squawking at the corporations.

[DKW 86 7,425]

43 minutes ago, homersapien said:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/12/01/biden-price-gouging-inflation/

Biden turns up pressure on corporate ‘price gouging’ as 2024 nears

 

President Biden blasted corporate “price gouging” more forcefully this week than ever before, reflecting a renewed administration effort to respond to widespread voter discontent over the economy as next year’s election looms.

After weeks of internal meetings led by White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, Biden aides recently pitched the president on a plan to sharply rebuke firms for not lowering prices despite record profits, according to three people with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect internal deliberations. The president liked the idea and quickly approved it, the people said.

The new approach comes in part as a response to consistently poor marks from voters over Biden’s handling of the economy, even though inflation is dropping from last year’s spike and as corporate profits remain surprisingly high. But the effort is not without its risks: Republicans and even some Democratic economists, for instance, largely dispute that corporate “greed” is responsible for any economy-wide price hikes.

In remarks Monday, Biden struck his most populist tone yet in assailing firms for not lowering prices even as supply chains have healed. “Let me be clear: To any corporation that has not brought their prices back down — even as inflation has come down, even [as] supply chains have been rebuilt — it’s time to stop the price gouging,” he said in a speech about supply chains.

On Thursday, he followed up those comments with a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, reiterating that message.

Biden’s approach was buttressed by a federal report this week that corporate profits jumped in the most recent quarter, although they had been expected to decline. Corporate profits exceeded labor costs in the most recent quarter as part of inflation for the first time in 18 months, according to Mike Konczal, director of macroeconomic analysis at the Roosevelt Institute, a center-left think tank. In the most recent quarter, corporate profits accounted for slightly more than 15 percent of national income, representing a substantial increase from last year, when corporations earned close to $3 trillion in profit.

White House aides say the president’s remarks are part of a broader effort to pressure large companies to do more to lower prices when they can. One White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe administration thinking, pointed out that producer prices have cooled markedly, with some firms seeing their costs decline without resulting in lower prices for consumers.

It is unclear how aggressive the president will be in his attempt to jawbone corporations over price gouging, and the White House declined to comment when asked if Biden would aim to identify specific corporations for criticism. Still, the White House official highlighted the actions of Walmart, which recently announced lower costs.

“The president will aggressively use the bully pulpit to call out the fact some companies are not passing on savings to American consumers,” the White House official said. “Even though the pandemic disruptions are behind us, some companies are keeping margins very high and his view is that some of those savings should be passed on.”

The tactic partly reflects White House frustration over negative economic polling despite what Biden aides see as a strong economy. Unemployment remains low, the economy is growing at a rapid clip, and inflation has been steadily easing for more than a year. Yet the administration’s attempts to convert these positive economic results into political advantages do not appear to be working, with polls showing that even Democratic and independent voters dislike Biden’s handling of the economy. A New York Times/Sienna poll released last month showed that even most Democrats who supported Biden in 2020 do not believe the economy is either “excellent” or “good.”

While the White House has tried promoting its successes, a chorus of liberal advocates has long pushed the administration to instead align itself with the discontent over high prices and try to direct that ire against large corporations. Spearheading this push has been the Groundwork Collaborative, a think tank led by Lindsay Owens, who previously served as a top aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Owens has championed this approach for more than two years, and her staff has compiled evidence from hundreds of corporate earnings reports to provide support for their case.

Biden has taken some steps in this direction — criticizing consolidation in the agricultural sector and the oil industry, for instance, and launching an initiative aimed at cracking down on “junk fees” across a range of industries. But many on the left have wanted him to go further.

“Americans are really upset about this: The polling on this is substantial, particularly among independents. Everything suggests this is the right strategy for the White House both substantively and politically,” Owens said.

Former president Donald Trump attempted to appeal to young people by criticizing Biden’s “disastrous economy” in a Newsweek op-ed Wednesday.

Economists disagree over the extent to which price gouging really is leading to broad-based price hikes.

Most economists have pointed to higher labor costs, elevated energy prices and snarled supply chains to explain the surge in post-pandemic inflation. Corporate profits are often invested, generating long-term economic growth by improving productive capacity. Corporate profits also surged in the early 2010s — a time with no measurable surge in inflation.

“It’s a third-order issue at best,” said Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank. “We have had a fundamental mismatch between supply and demand, and that’s why we’ve had four-decade-high inflation. It has nothing to do with price gouging.”

Jason Furman, who served as a top economist in the Obama administration, said he supports the administration’s outstanding efforts to break up corporate monopolies but sees pushing on “profiteering” to likely do little to lower consumer prices.

“More vigorous antitrust is a good thing, but it won’t do anything noticeable about inflation on any reasonable time frame,” Furman said.

Still, Konczal, of the Roosevelt Institute, pointed to data showing that corporate profits are at or near record highs for the last half-century — and defended the president’s attempts to call attention to that trend.

“It’s a really good time for us to think through why there are such high levels of corporate profits even as inflation is normalizing and supply chains are coming back online,” Konczal said. “It’s worthy of attention.”

He says all this while holding his hand out for ever more corporate campaign money. He is criticizing his own donors at this point.

Do something. Quit giving us a landslide of meaningless words.

[homersapien 11,381]

37 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

Of course. Brother Homer has an article for everything. Way I read the Biden Administration is frustrated politically because people do not see our economy in the hunky dory fashion they do. That means a loss of votes. Hence, Biden puts on a show of squawking at the corporations.

et tu Salty?  

It's not just the Biden administration that sees the economy as actually doing better than people "feel" it is, its economists.  (I trust you are rational enough to accept objective economic indicators.) 

How much did your portfolio improve since last Thursday?

And you can't shame me for producing evidence - in the form of articles - that demonstrate MAGAs simply don't know what the **** they are talking about.

 

Edited January 20 by homersapien

[homersapien 11,381]

8 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

He says all this while holding his hand out for ever more corporate campaign money. He is criticizing his own donors at this point.

Do something. Quit giving us a landslide of meaningless words.

How about this?

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/biden-tax-proposals-would-correct-inequities-created-by-trump-tax-cuts-and-raise-additional-revenues/

Biden Tax Proposals Would Correct Inequities Created by Trump Tax Cuts and Raise Additional Revenues

President Biden’s fiscal year 2024 tax proposal would impose new taxes on unearned income, while improving the child tax credit.

"Key members of the new U.S. House of Representatives Republican majority have announced their intention to permanently extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA),¹ which the Republican-controlled Congress enacted in 2017. Signed into law by then-President Donald Trump, the TCJA slashed taxes for corporations and the wealthy and on the estates the wealthy pass on to their heirs. The law permanently cut the corporate tax rate and changed the way the United States imposes taxes on multinational corporations. It also included a temporary reduction in personal income tax rates along with other personal income tax changes that expire at the end of 2025.² Overall, the measure was projected to increase the federal deficit by about $1.9 trillion over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.³ The wealthiest 5 percent of households received nearly half—42.6 percent—of the Trump tax cuts, with the top 0.1 percent receiving an average tax cut of $193,380 in 2018.^4".........

Edited January 20 by homersapien

[TexasTiger 12,915]

27 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

Biden puts on a show of squawking at the corporations.

Biden lacks the empathy you and Romney have for corporations because he fails to grasp this simple truth:

 

[Gowebb11 9,328]

More concerning than the economy in my opinion is Biden’s recent rambling about talking to a Congresswoman right before he acknowledged she wasn’t actually there at that event. His cognitive condition is declining quickly. Continuing to ignore it is dangerous for him and us in my opinion. 

[homersapien 11,381]

7 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

More concerning than the economy in my opinion is Biden’s recent rambling about talking to a Congresswoman right before he acknowledged she wasn’t actually there at that event. His cognitive condition is declining quickly. Continuing to ignore it is dangerous for him and us in my opinion. 

Yet, Biden's still more competent than the TFG, and elections are a choice. 

[Gowebb11 9,328]

30 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Yet, Biden's still more competent than the TFG, and elections are a choice. 

Comparative competence for Presidential candidates when it comes to dementia is not relevant. The Dems should go forward with another candidate. It’s the sound and humane thing to do. 

[TexasTiger 12,915]

21 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

Comparative competence for Presidential candidates when it comes to dementia is not relevant. The Dems should go forward with another candidate. It’s the sound and humane thing to do. 

There’s what’s ideal and what we’ll likely get. The choice is always between flawed candidates.

[SaltyTiger 7,813]

1 hour ago, homersapien said:

et tu Salty?  

It's not just the Biden administration that sees the economy as actually doing better than people "feel" it is, its economists.  (I trust you are rational enough to accept objective economic indicators.) 

How much did your portfolio improve since last Thursday?

And you can't shame me for producing evidence - in the form of articles - that demonstrate MAGAs simply don't know what the **** they are talking about.

 

Not confident any president could have a great deal with the economy given circumstances during the recent past. Would just like to see our younger folks enjoy some years of the same stability we enjoyed at times.

[homersapien 11,381]

41 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

Comparative competence for Presidential candidates when it comes to dementia is not relevant. The Dems should go forward with another candidate. It’s the sound and humane thing to do. 

Oh, and your medical opinion is?

[AU9377 4,948]

3 hours ago, I_M4_AU said:

Probably, but who knows.  Do you think Russia would have invaded Ukraine if Trump was in office?  Do you think Iran would have the money to supply their proxies Hamas, Hezbulla and the Houthis if Trump was in office.  So many questions.

ETA: did you see Homer’s article?  It all fits now doesn’t it

John Bolton and other members of Trump's own administration believe that would have certainly happened.  Foreign leaders laugh at Trump and his self loving nonsense.