Greedflation

[TastySuckToy]

Whoosh. Straight over your trickle down head.

The question can be answered in three words. You can't answer it, which is what I expected.

Any good economics class professor would ask students to answer this question in their class.

But I regress, you obviously don't know. *shrug*

 

[adrina]

The question can be answered in three words. You can't answer it, which is what I expected.

Any good economics class professor would ask students to answer this question in their class.

But I regress, you obviously don't know. *shrug*

You are not a good econ class prof. In fact you aren't even a good economic study. Once again, you think trickle down works. You don't seem to understand that you lack credibility.

Please go ahead and tell me I don't know what I'm talking about. I need a good chuckle.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

This month, Canadians have boycotted Loblaws, one of the bigger supermarket chains. They own lots of different brands, so there's not much competition. Magically, since the boycott, some prices have started to come down, since the big three supermarket chains, along with Walmart and Costco have realized that consumers aren't powerless. And everyone knows they're being screwed and they aren't willing to put up with it.

No small wonder food banks are unable to cope with the demand, when greedflation is making the cost of food go through the roof.

Milk is sold in bags of three in Canada. And three one liter bags now costs just over six dollars. Which is crazy.

So, I wouldn't blame the politicians, I'd blame the ones raking in record profits off the backs of the consumers.

What's really amazing is the government tried to get involved. "Ottawa summons grocery chain CEOs to discuss stabilizing food prices."
Though the heads of the biggest supermarket chains did attend, when questioned, they all claimed they were barely making any money. And they had the nerve to claim they were only making a penny or two on every dollar worth of merchandise they sold. But when their huge annual profits were announced shortly after, they claimed that consumers didn't understand how it worked. And they still had the audacity to say weren't making much money.

The government asked them to sign an agreement that would help bring down prices, and no surprise, the biggest ones, with the biggest profits, refused. They're starting to re-think it now though, since the boycott. So, fingers crossed prices actually do start to drop.

In England, the government looked into the fees the grocery chains put on the food suppliers. Apparently, there were about 30 different charges they had to pay just to be able to sell in some of the bigger stores. It seems the same is true in Canada. Once the number of charges were reduced, prices started coming down. Surprising, huh?

In Canada a lot of people are starting to turn to co-ops for their groceries, and turning their backs on big supermarkets.

 

[adrina]

 

[Lazaran]

Why didn’t the “fat cats” take advantage of Clinton? Or Obama? What makes Biden so special?

BabyBoobs pretends that President Clinton wasn’t fairly deferential to the wealthy and corporations, (although, NOT Reagan, Bush, or Trump deferential) and yet they still wanted him gone, They certainly didn’t want Al Gore to be President.



And President Obama was basically leveraged into giving the wealthy and corporations EVERYTHING they wanted (and more) after he was saddled with the Great Recession.



President Biden has rightly recognized that gross inequality and wealth disparity in this country is making society too polarized to function, and he has made efforts to restore some equilibrium.

That ^ has infuriated the wealthy sociopaths and corporations, leading to their price gouging / profiteering tantrum. (Greedflation).



Side note:

The wealthy and corporations can put their fat thumbs on the scale of elections anytime they want, just by selling stocks and raising prices.

That ^ is another reason that "Citizens United" (what a joke) should never have. won their case.



JFC

SAD!!!

 

[TastySuckToy]

Once again, you think trickle down works.

The idea of trickle down economics has absolutely nothing to do with the question I asked. You may as well have brought up space aliens as a response to my question. You not only have no understanding of economics, you clearly don't even understand the question I asked. Hence you bringing up completely irrelevant things like Trump or 'trickle down economics'.

You may as well have said "Ice cream melts" to my question. *shrug*

 

[adrina]

The idea of trickle down economics has absolutely nothing to do with the question I asked. You may as well have brought up space aliens as a response to my question. You not only have no understanding of economics, you clearly don't even understand the question I asked. Hence you bringing up completely irrelevant things like Trump or 'trickle down economics'.

You may as well have said "Ice cream melts" to my question. *shrug*

The reality is that your basis for economic understanding is flawed. You abide by "conservative" "fiscal" "policy" which is none of those things.

You may as well as asked "what is one effect of hot weather?" for all the relevance your question has.

 

[TastySuckToy]

The reality is that your basis for economic understanding is flawed. You abide by "conservative" "fiscal" "policy" which is none of those things.

You may as well as asked "what is one effect of hot weather?" for all the relevance your question has.

You can't answer the question, like I said. Fair enough. If you can't, you can't.

It was a question that anyone with even the slightest education in economics could answer, and even someone with no economics education should be able to figure out very quickly. You can't, that's fine, whatever. I regress.

 

[BabyBoomer50s]

BabyBoobs pretends that President Clinton wasn’t fairly deferential to the wealthy and corporations, (although, NOT Reagan, Bush, or Trump deferential) and yet they still wanted him gone, They certainly didn’t want Al Gore to be President.



And President Obama was basically leveraged into giving the wealthy and corporations EVERYTHING they wanted (and more) after he was saddled with the Great Recession.



President Biden has rightly recognized that gross inequality and wealth disparity in this country is making society too polarized to function, and he has made efforts to restore some equilibrium.

That ^ has infuriated the wealthy sociopaths and corporations, leading to their price gouging / profiteering tantrum. (Greedflation).



Side note:

The wealthy and corporations can put their fat thumbs on the scale of elections anytime they want, just by selling stocks and raising prices.

That ^ is another reason that "Citizens United" (what a joke) should never have. won their case.



JFC

SAD!!!

So your argument is that businesses kept prices low and inflation under 3% under Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump because those guys were puppets of the wealthy and large corporations.

Then Biden came along and signed off on trillions in stimulus programs that included student loan forgiveness and generous subsidies to favored industries such as chip manufacturers, EV makers, and massive government contracts. Businesses were mad about it and conspired to raise prices on food, housing, utilities, energy, healthcare, restaurants, transportation, services, hospitality and other things people consume. Lol

 

[adrina]

You can't answer the question, like I said. Fair enough. If you can't, you can't.

It was a question that anyone with even the slightest education in economics could answer, and even someone with no economics education should be able to figure out very quickly. You can't, that's fine, whatever. I regress.

You're a broken record. And an irrelevant one.

Yes I know what you think happens and what happens in traditional supply and demand. But we aren't in that. This is corporate profiteering - greedflation.

Get the fuck off it dude. You're being an idiot and making a fool out of yourself trying to die on that irrelevant hill.

And yes. You do.

 

[TastySuckToy]

Yes I know what you think happens and what happens in traditional supply and demand.

Supply and demand has absolutely nothing to do with the question. *sigh*

 

[adrina]

Supply and demand has absolutely nothing to do with the question. *sigh*

Just like that question has nothing to do with the current pricing paradigm.

Sigh.

Continue regressing. Not that I can stop you.

 

[TastySuckToy]

Just like that question has nothing to do with the current pricing paradigm.

I never said it did. I simply asked if you can answer it.

 

[adrina]

I never said it did. I simply asked if you can answer it.

Sure thing. Yawn.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Why didn’t the “fat cats” take advantage of Clinton? Or Obama? What makes Biden so special?

People started gouging during the pandemic, imagining that people would pay whatever they had to, because the world was in such turmoil. I'm sure we can all remember everyone going crazy trying to find things like toilet paper.

After the pandemic slowed down, I think retailers and manufacturers realized they could keep raising prices and no one was going to stop them. Which I think is why food has become so expensive in just the last few years, after being fairly steady for decades.

 

[adrina]

People started gouging during the pandemic, imagining that people would pay whatever they had to, because the world was in such turmoil. After the pandemic slowed down, I think retailers and manufacturers realized they could keep raising prices and no one was going to stop them. Which I think is why food has become so expensive in just the last few years, after being fairly steady for decades.

And now any little ripple is used as an excuse to raise prices - whether or not it actually causes an increase in their costs.

 

[Lazaran]

BabyBoobs pretends that President Clinton wasn’t fairly deferential to the wealthy and corporations, (although, NOT Reagan, Bush, or Trump deferential) and yet they still wanted him gone, They certainly didn’t want Al Gore to be President.



And President Obama was basically leveraged into giving the wealthy and corporations EVERYTHING they wanted (and more) after he was saddled with the Great Recession.



President Biden has rightly recognized that gross inequality and wealth disparity in this country is making society too polarized to function, and he has made efforts to restore some equilibrium.

That ^ has infuriated the wealthy sociopaths and corporations, leading to their price gouging / profiteering tantrum. (Greedflation).



Side note:

The wealthy and corporations can put their fat thumbs on the scale of elections anytime they want, just by selling stocks and raising prices.

That ^ is another reason that "Citizens United" (what a joke) should never have. won their case.



JFC

SAD!!!

So your argument is that businesses kept prices low and inflation under 3% under Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump because those guys were puppets of the wealthy and large corporations.

Then Biden came along and signed off on trillions in stimulus programs that included student loan forgiveness and generous subsidies to favored industries such as chip manufacturers, EV makers, and massive government contracts. Businesses were mad about it and conspired to raise prices on food, housing, utilities, energy, healthcare, restaurants, transportation, services, hospitality and other things people consume. Lol

BabyBoobs apparently can’t read for comprehension.

Most gaslighting sealions can’t



BabyBoobs



Side note:

President Biden hasn’t been great for the corporate media either.

The same corporate media that helped get the corrupt orange traitor elected the first time.

Unsurprisingly, the corporate media (which is supposedly an arm of the Democratic Party) has mainly focused on President Biden’s age and not the success of his administration in the face of an insurrection, Putin’s war, (as well as the related 10/7 attack and aftermath), the hangover from the corrupt orange traitor’s bungling of the Covid response, natural and man-made disasters, a difficult exit from Afghanistan after the corrupt orange traitor made the infamous “Doha deal” with the Taliban, AND greedflation.



JFC

SAD!!!

 

[Smuttyandfun]

And now any little ripple is used as an excuse to raise prices - whether or not it actually causes an increase in their costs.

I just wonder how the people at the top, making all the money, can sleep at night, knowing that a lot of people can barely afford to eat, thanks to the profit geared decisions they've made.

 

[adrina]

I just wonder how the people at the top, making all the money, can sleep at night, knowing that a lot of people can barely afford to eat, thanks to the profit geared decisions they've made.

Dollars to donuts, no pun intended, they have no problem going to sleep at night. Many of them likely do so thinking about how they can get more money from those families who can barely afford to eat. That is the sad reality of corporate greed, especially corporate capitalism.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Funny you should mention them getting every last dime they can.

Loblaws again, had been reducing older produce, baked goods and meats by 50%. But when they noticed a lot of people were counting on buying discounted food, just so they could afford to eat, they dropped the discount to 30%. Obviously hoping to squeeze every last dime they could out of their poorest customers. But when it was on the news and people said how nasty they were, they put the discount back to 50%. And most people know that the only stuff they discount is pretty crappy, and well past its best before date.

The owner of Loblaws jetted over to England recently to buy a soccer team, so I've got a feeling he's doing just fine. And sleeping at night is not a problem for him.

 

[adrina]

Funny you should mention them getting every last dime they can.

Loblaws again, had been reducing older produce, baked goods and meats by 50%. But when they noticed a lot of people were counting on buying discounted food, just so they could afford to eat, they dropped the discount to 30%. Obviously hoping to squeeze every last dime they could out of their poorest customers. But when it was on the news and people said how nasty they were, they put the discount back to 50%. And most people know that the only stuff they discount is pretty crappy, and well past its best before date.

The owner of Loblaws jetted over to England recently to buy a soccer team, so I've got a feeling he's doing just fine. And sleeping at night is not a problem for him.

That's the reality of corporate capitalism. Especially large near monopolistic corporate capitalism. Greed is good, treating employees like liabilities is good, profit is good. More profit is better.

Regardless of the market, the consumers or the environment.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

That's the reality of corporate capitalism. Especially large near monopolistic corporate capitalism. Greed is good, treating employees like liabilities is good, profit is good. More profit is better.

Regardless of the market, the consumers or the environment.

So true. Greed often trumps compassion.

 

[adrina]

 

[BabyBoomer50s]

Are Markups Driving the Ups and Downs of Inflation?

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, May 13, 2024

“How much impact have price markups for goods and services had on the recent surge and the subsequent decline of inflation? Since 2021, markups have risen substantially in a few industries such as motor vehicles and petroleum. However, aggregate markups—which are more relevant for overall inflation—have generally remained flat, in line with previous economic recoveries over the past three decades. These patterns suggest that markup fluctuations have not been a main driver of the ups and downs of inflation during the post-pandemic recovery.”

https://www.frbsf.org/research-and-...re-markups-driving-ups-and-downs-of-inflation

 

[Lazaran]

Some analysis worth considering:

https://nevadacurrent.com/2024/05/21/trumps-corporate-tax-cuts-paved-the-way-for-inflation/



Basically: Corporate greed is paying better than ever, thanks to the corrupt orange traitor’s “Tax cut for the wealthy and corporations.”



And the corporate greed-meisters are taking advantage of the corrupt orange traitor’s tax cuts while the getting’s good.



There will be less incentive for corporate price gouging once the corrupt orange traitor’s tax cuts expire next year. (Corporations will still price gouge; just to a lesser extent.)



JFC

SAD!!!