Meat packers industry....300% increase in profits during pandemic

[WillJ8787]

Source:
https://www.reuters.com/business/me...ng-pandemic-white-house-economics-2021-12-10/

Is this the best Capitalism has to offer?

85% of the meat industry is consolidated ( Oligopoly) into 4 companies....how is it possible and/or acceptable for these companies to profit excessively (remember, you all are complaining about inflation.and the high cost of products including beef) during a time of crisis in the US?

"Four of the biggest meat-processing companies, using their market power in the highly consolidated U.S. market to drive up meat prices and underpay farmers, have tripled their own net profit margins since the pandemic started..."

Numerous interviews and financial reporting is showing this increase in profits.is concentrate only at the big company level(not beef ranchers. Their profits have remained flat).

So, be careful who you blame...you probably will be wrong. Follow the money.

 

[BidudeinWi]

Source:
https://www.reuters.com/business/me...ng-pandemic-white-house-economics-2021-12-10/

Is this the best Capitalism has to offer?

85% of the meat industry is consolidated ( Oligopoly) into 4 companies....how is it possible and/or acceptable for these companies to profit excessively (remember, you all are complaining about inflation.and the high cost of products including beef) during a time of crisis in the US?

"Four of the biggest meat-processing companies, using their market power in the highly consolidated U.S. market to drive up meat prices and underpay farmers, have tripled their own net profit margins since the pandemic started..."

Numerous interviews and financial reporting is showing this increase in profits.is concentrate only at the big company level(not beef ranchers. Their profits have remained flat).

So, be careful who you blame...you probably will be wrong. Follow the money.

Says the White House Economic Advisors! Of course they are going to blame the producers for their fucking up failures!

You are a POS for posting this misinformation/disinformation! They don’t even link the source of their information and just expect douchebags like you to believe them!

 

[WillJ8787]

Says the White House Economic Advisors! Of course they are going to blame the producers for their fucking up failures!

You are a POS for posting this misinformation/disinformation! They don’t even link the source of their information and just expect douchebags like you to believe them!

Reuters is doing the reporting, among others.

The role of a free press(Constitutionally important) is just this ..to check whether what the White House is saying is true

And, the facts are correct:
"...Those statements showed a 120% collective jump in their gross profits since the pandemic and a 500% increase in net income, the analysis shows. These companies recently announced $1 billion in new dividends and stock buybacks, on top of the more than $3 billion they paid to shareholders since the pandemic began."

 

[Bud_Spencer]

Well, Will, you could start up a meat packing company tomorrow and not only put these malefactors out of business, you could get stinking rich doing so. Have at it!

Personally, I'd like to see what those margins are. Did they go from 1% to 4%, as I suspect?

 

[JohnnySavage]

People shouldn't eat meat from a CAFO. They are environmental disasters.

 

[BidudeinWi]

Reuters is doing the reporting, among others.

The role of a free press(Constitutionally important) is just this ..to check whether what the White House is saying is true

And, the facts are correct:
"...Those statements showed a 120% collective jump in their gross profits since the pandemic and a 500% increase in net income, the analysis shows. These companies recently announced $1 billion in new dividends and stock buybacks, on top of the more than $3 billion they paid to shareholders since the pandemic began."

Right. Yet we’re supposed to believe Reuters with no link to the source. You’re almost as stupid as GreenFace.

 

[WillJ8787]

Well, Will, you could start up a meat packing company tomorrow and not only put these malefactors out of business, you could get stinking rich doing so. Have at it!

Personally, I'd like to see what those margins are. Did they go from 1% to 4%, as I suspect?

I hear Biden is gonna throw a billion at this to do just that.

 

[WillJ8787]

Right. Yet we’re supposed to believe Reuters with no link to the source. You’re almost as stupid as GreenFace.

I'm not asking you to believe anything. Especially you.

 

[BidudeinWi]

I'm not asking you to believe anything. Especially you.

Keep posting your “opinion” articles with no fact sources. Nobody with a brain will believe it. If they do, they’re just as gullible and uneducated as you!

 

[Bud_Spencer]

I hear Biden is gonna throw a billion at this to do just that.

Ha-ha....I guess the money hole was full, so he's just going to piss it away there.

 

[GothTalk]

85% of the meat industry is consolidated ( Oligopoly) into 4 companies....how is it possible and/or acceptable for these companies to profit excessively (remember, you all are complaining about inflation.and the high cost of products including beef) during a time of crisis in the US?

"profit excessively" .....what the fuck does that even mean??

So, be careful who you blame...you probably will be wrong. Follow the money.

No need to follow the money, the boot heelz of oppression are open and flagrant.

The "oligopoly" in meat is no different than that of other agricultural sectors, it is built and protected by the USDA/FDA who exist to shut down their competition.

 

[LukSkyFokker]

Ha-ha....I guess the money hole was full, so he's just going to piss it away there.

It's better than the farmer's bailout.

 

[Champakian]

Source:
https://www.reuters.com/business/me...ng-pandemic-white-house-economics-2021-12-10/

Is this the best Capitalism has to offer?

85% of the meat industry is consolidated ( Oligopoly) into 4 companies....how is it possible and/or acceptable for these companies to profit excessively (remember, you all are complaining about inflation.and the high cost of products including beef) during a time of crisis in the US?

"Four of the biggest meat-processing companies, using their market power in the highly consolidated U.S. market to drive up meat prices and underpay farmers, have tripled their own net profit margins since the pandemic started..."

Numerous interviews and financial reporting is showing this increase in profits.is concentrate only at the big company level(not beef ranchers. Their profits have remained flat).

So, be careful who you blame...you probably will be wrong. Follow the money.

I am constantly amazed and appalled about the prevalence of economic illiteracy,
especially in reporting where profits are trumpeted as loudly as possible without
any reference to profit margins, which across all industries have a consistency,
a strange attractor of about 11%. Less than that and the company/industry is
not making enough to be viable and sustainable in the long run and more than
that causes loss of market share to smaller competitors or alternative product.

If your beef is just with the price of beef, try chicken or broccoli. That's how
markets work and beef is no different than the price of tea in China...

 

[Champakian]

"profit excessively" .....what the fuck does that even mean??



No need to follow the money, the boot heelz of oppression are open and flagrant.

The "oligopoly" in meat is no different than that of other agricultural sectors, it is built and protected by the USDA/FDA who exist to shut down their competition.

That is the dirty little secret of government regulation.
The big players are in position to purchase politicians
and protect themselves via regulations that "experts"
advise government on and these experts are provided
by people from those industries who become involved
as consultants to lawmakers who have zero idea as
to how industry actually works, like a majority of
posters in this thread who think they have a magic
bullet or mystical insight on what needs to be done
to fix the malfeasance of xyz company/industry...

 

[WillJ8787]

I am constantly amazed and appalled about the prevalence of economic illiteracy,
especially in reporting where profits are trumpeted as loudly as possible without
any reference to profit margins, which across all industries have a consistency,
a strange attractor of about 11%. Less than that and the company/industry is
not making enough to be viable and sustainable in the long run and more than
that causes loss of market share to smaller competitors or alternative product.

If your beef is just with the price of beef, try chicken or broccoli. That's how
markets work and beef is no different than the price of tea in China...

Isn't this, then, the cause of high prices? By your own words here....not pandemic caused increases in the price of beef, not pandemic inflation, not Dems caused....your words..." This is how markets works".

You make my point perfectly.

 

[Champakian]

I fail to see any indication that you are reading for comprehension
but rather to find some bias confirmation for that endless
and mindless loop that is running in your head.

It's as if I typed, The Quick Brown Fox, and you read,
"I do not like green eggs and ham" and then replied,
"So I am right agains you dastardly cartoon villain!"

 

[JohnnySavage]

The cause of the high prices, as I understand it, is because of consolidation of the slaughter houses and them being shut down for covid.

Ranchers send beef to CAFOs to fatten up. Once the cows are fat, they go to the slaughter house. The big 4 beef retailers set the price they will pay for the slaughtered cows because they have the market power (probably an anti-trust violation, but there's also an old law that regulates the industry and I don't recall the interplay between the two)

The big 4 depress prices at the slaughter house, which is pushed down to the CAFO and the ranchers. As usual, ranchers/farmers get screwed.

I'm not sure why ranchers can't form a co-op and establish their own CAFOs and slaughter houses. Probably the cost of complying with environmental regulations is prohibitive. I buy local beef though. I can pet a cow today and eat it tomorrow.

 

[BidudeinWi]

People shouldn't eat meat from a CAFO. They are environmental disasters.

People should eat meat from wherever they want. It’s nobody else’s business!

 

[WillJ8787]

"profit excessively" .....what the fuck does that even mean??



No need to follow the money, the boot heelz of oppression are open and flagrant.

The "oligopoly" in meat is no different than that of other agricultural sectors, it is built and protected by the USDA/FDA who exist to shut down their competition.

Why would "the boot heels of oppression" operate outside of money making?....you know that doesn't make any sense.

 

[WillJ8787]

I fail to see any indication that you are reading for comprehension
but rather to find some bias confirmation for that endless
and mindless loop that is running in your head.

It's as if I typed, The Quick Brown Fox, and you read,
"I do not like green eggs and ham" and then replied,
"So I am right agains you dastardly cartoon villain!"

If it's the markets and how they work....then this is the best that Capitalism can do. I think I understand your point.

 

[WillJ8787]

The cause of the high prices, as I understand it, is because of consolidation of the slaughter houses and them being shut down for covid.

Ranchers send beef to CAFOs to fatten up. Once the cows are fat, they go to the slaughter house. The big 4 beef retailers set the price they will pay for the slaughtered cows because they have the market power (probably an anti-trust violation, but there's also an old law that regulates the industry and I don't recall the interplay between the two)

The big 4 depress prices at the slaughter house, which is pushed down to the CAFO and the ranchers. As usual, ranchers/farmers get screwed.

I'm not sure why ranchers can't form a co-op and establish their own CAFOs and slaughter houses. Probably the cost of complying with environmental regulations is prohibitive. I buy local beef though. I can pet a cow today and eat it tomorrow.

Yes, you make an excellent point here....the Ranchers all seem to "feel" this as the situation, without being able to prove price setting. The Ranchers are actually in not such good shape.

Isn't competition the antidote to price fixing in a Capitalist sense....unless other forces are at work to prevent it.(to preserve what?Boot heels says some....but I doubt these companies are run by boot heeled Dems....don't you think?

 

[Champakian]

The cause of the high prices, as I understand it, is because of consolidation of the slaughter houses and them being shut down for covid.

Ranchers send beef to CAFOs to fatten up. Once the cows are fat, they go to the slaughter house. The big 4 beef retailers set the price they will pay for the slaughtered cows because they have the market power (probably an anti-trust violation, but there's also an old law that regulates the industry and I don't recall the interplay between the two)

The big 4 depress prices at the slaughter house, which is pushed down to the CAFO and the ranchers. As usual, ranchers/farmers get screwed.

I'm not sure why ranchers can't form a co-op and establish their own CAFOs and slaughter houses. Probably the cost of complying with environmental regulations is prohibitive. I buy local beef though. I can pet a cow today and eat it tomorrow.

Yes, the cost of regulation is embedded into the price of beef as is transportation costs
labor costs, utility costs, political costs due to the uneducated altruism of the Left,
but to think that they are not in competition with each other is wrong thinking.
They do get bigger because no one else can enter the market, which,
as an aside, is why we don't get more successful minority startups,
they just do not have the accumulated resources or political
power to either fight or comply with the complexity of
government protections of the consumer, so only
the big, well-funded and well-connected can
succeed, which is why I am such a huge
proponent of things like the Fair Tax
and using courts instead of
government to keep
business honest.

Furthermore, don't even try to intimate that Ranchers/Farmers
have not also consolidated into large corporate endeavors
with the associated ability to protect from and imbed
themselves into government and writing regulation.

People have this romantic and fallacious picture of what farming is
because the vast majority of Americans are completely
divorced from the mechanisms of how food comes
to the store and then onto their plates.

The only thing we are experiencing is not collusion in the food change
but rather the unintended consequences of self-appointed experts
on every industry and every topic under the sun who believe
that they have the acumen and divine right to command
the tides, sun, moon and stars from Washington DC.

 

[WillJ8787]

Yes, the cost of regulation is embedded into the price of beef as is transportation costs
labor costs, utility costs, political costs due to the uneducated altruism of the Left,
but to think that they are not in competition with each other is wrong thinking.
They do get bigger because no one else can enter the market, which,
as an aside, is why we don't get more successful minority startups,
they just do not have the accumulated resources or political
power to either fight or comply with the complexity of
government protections of the consumer, so only
the big, well-funded and well-connected can
succeed, which is why I am such a huge
proponent of things like the Fair Tax
and using courts instead of
government to keep
business honest.

Furthermore, don't even try to intimate that Ranchers/Farmers
have not also consolidated into large corporate endeavors
with the associated ability to protect from and imbed
themselves into government and writing regulation.

People have this romantic and fallacious picture of what farming is
because the vast majority of Americans are completely
divorced from the mechanisms of how food comes
to the store and then onto their plates.

The only thing we are experiencing is not collusion in the food change
but rather the unintended consequences of self-appointed experts
on every industry and every topic under the sun who believe
that they have the acumen and divine right to command
the tides, sun, moon and stars from Washington DC.

Ah, I see...it isn't that this is how the markets work(which you said a few posts up)...it's Govt's fault...they sure gotta twist some arms to take the subsidies! chuckles

Wouldn't true capitalist wave off the subsidies? Why don't they?

 

[GeorgeSoros]

I am constantly amazed and appalled about the prevalence of economic illiteracy,
especially in reporting where profits are trumpeted as loudly as possible without
any reference to profit margins, which across all industries have a consistency,
a strange attractor of about 11%. Less than that and the company/industry is
not making enough to be viable and sustainable in the long run and more than
that causes loss of market share to smaller competitors or alternative product.

If your beef is just with the price of beef, try chicken or broccoli. That's how
markets work and beef is no different than the price of tea in China...

This is stupid, even for you. And it’s what happens when theory (and preferred narrative) is valued more than data.

Net Profit Margins by Industry: Q3 2021 (Twelve Months Trailing)

Rank Industry Net Profit Margin
1 Financial 23.81 %
2 Capital Goods 19.21 %
3 Consumer Discretionary 14.93 %
4 Technology 12.28 %
5 Consumer Non-Cyclical 10.03 %
6 Utilities 9.05 %
7 Basic Materials 6.71 %
8 Energy 5.85 %

Apple’s net profit margin is currently around 25%.

 

[Champakian]

That's an easy answer; too easy to demagogue (as you so well know)
and it would cost them the slight ability that they have now to mitigate.

If you had ever studied the FairTax.org, 30% of the price you pay for
goods and services is the embedded cost of government compliance.

And no matter how many regulations it institutes, there are still
wrongs and accidents that occur because no deliberative body or
dictatorship can anticipate everything that can possibly occur,
but still they relentlessly pass law as if they could not just perfect
society but also anticipate and abrogate basic human nature.

This is why Libertarians have no political power.
We have nothing to offer and more of it.
What we want is not to try and anticipate evil/wrong
and thusly write law and regulation, but rather to have
a robust response system that punishes wrongdoers when
caught with such enthusiasm as to dissuade others instead
of providing a regulatory system for them to participate in,
manipulate and hide behind.