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The reasons for current inflation seem to be complex. I'm willing to believe part of the reason is higher wages, as it does seem that there have been some (fai

The reasons for current inflation seem to be complex. I'm willing to believe part of the reason is higher wages, as it does seem that there have been some (fairly minor) real gains over the past several months. But it's also quite clear that the increased oil prices are affecting the prices of goods and services across the board. And I've seen a number of reports of companies posting record profits and raising prices—which indicates that they're not raising prices because they have to, but because "oh, it's inflation, we have no choice" is a convenient cover for them to increase their margins. More importantly, the concern at hand is recessions, not inflation, and the comment I replied to was specifically noting the fact that there had been several significant recessions in recent years. It was the apparent fragility of our economy recently that I was attributing to the drastically increased income inequality, not inflation specifically.

s1artibartfast 4y ago
>I've seen a number of reports of companies posting record profits and raising prices—which indicates that they're not raising prices because they have to You are thinking about this only from the profit side. The entire reason this can happen is because customers are willing and capable to pay more. Cost were never limiting the price because companies were making a profit before too! If you are selling steak, you raise your prices until customers stop buying. You don't stop at X profit margin. Prices go up because customers are willing and able to spend more. If you're saying they're using inflation as a cover and lying, I totally agree. But waiting for an excuse isn't what was stopping them before. >More importantly, the concern at hand is recessions, not inflation You can't separate the two. Recession is GDP loss after adjusting for inflation. The U.S. GDP without inflation is still increasing. Without inflation there would be no recession https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP

s1artibartfast 4y ago

>I've seen a number of reports of companies posting record profits and raising prices—which indicates that they're not raising prices because they have to You are thinking about this only from the profit side. The entire reason this can happen is because customers are willing and capable to pay more. Cost were never limiting the price because companies were making a profit before too! If you are selling steak, you raise your prices until customers stop buying. You don't stop at X profit margin. Prices go up because customers are willing and able to spend more. If you're saying they're using inflation as a cover and lying, I totally agree. But waiting for an excuse isn't what was stopping them before. >More importantly, the concern at hand is recessions, not inflation You can't separate the two. Recession is GDP loss after adjusting for inflation. The U.S. GDP without inflation is still increasing. Without inflation there would be no recession https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP