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> Inflation was up largely due to Covid issues I don't know why people still believe this. Supply chain issues account for 2-3% of inflation immediately after

> Inflation was up largely due to Covid issues I don't know why people still believe this. Supply chain issues account for 2-3% of inflation immediately after COVID restrictions eased. The other 6-7% is corporate profiteering off of the perception of supply chain issues. You can see this clearly from the record profits being reported.

darkerside 4y ago
Why would you say it's they and not the tremendous amount of money pumped into the economy through COVID programs and artificially low interest rates?
- naasking 4y ago
  That money is included in the 2-3% I mentioned, the remainder is showing up on the corporate balance sheets as profits because they jacked up prices. For instance, see: https://youtu.be/udITRL9-t08 https://youtu.be/udITRL9-t08
datavirtue 4y ago
Back when the inflation hoopla started I watched the newshour desk (Amna, looking at you) very poorly hype it up. They had economists on to talk about it and they shrugged it off as corporate profiteering. You can always tell when they don't want to hear the truth. I yelled out the answer a few minutes before the economist did. They didn't invite her on to talk again. For some reason they just froth at the mouth at the prospect of systemic inflation. They will grab the reigns of the culture war and flog it mercilessly to the finish line but will never call out corporate collusion against workers nor the abuse of consumers lest Facebook or Walmart ease up on the "donations."
- dasil003 4y ago
  Agree with all of this, and it's even worse because collusion is not necessary. The profiteering requires no coordination at all. Just the narrative of inflation alone creates the smokescreen for individual corporations to all do this in lockstep without needing to so much as make eyes at each other across a tradeshow floor. Perfect deniability.
  - gsatic 4y ago
    So what do you guys want more rate hikes till when? Cuz it seems like rate hikes are pretty much the only working lever the dumb mindless machine has.
    - johnny22 4y ago
      that is one of the few levers the Fed has. Congress not acting is the real problem.
    - t-writescode 4y ago
      I want my fellow person to earn a living wage for a working day, no matter the work and a safety net for when we all fall on bad times. If that means my burger goes up a dollar, I’m fine with that.
opportune 4y ago
Corporate profits are an effect, not a cause. And you’d expect profits to hit records after 20% cumulative inflation + not being able to hire enough people to expand the business. I don’t buy the supply chain argument much either, but I think the huge economic stimulus from the Fed and government + many people dying or exiting the workforce led to both wage inflation (pretty glaringly obvious looking at eg fast food pay, also in the amount of HC expansion in big tech, etc) and more dollars chasing goods/services that did not increase as quickly as the money supply.
- themitigating 4y ago
  The total stimulus was less than $3000 for most people and last provided a year ago. How can someone not work just getting that?
  - opportune 4y ago
    Ok, now add all the money infused to the economy because of PPP and 0% interest rates, QE (did you know the Fed bought almost as many MBS during COVID as during the GFC?), rent forgiveness, and enhanced unemployment. All that money doesn’t just affect the person that receives it, it increases the monetary supply and flows throughout the entire economy I’m not saying people weren’t working because of the 3k stimulus or enhanced UE at all. I’m saying that those policies, along with many others, created inflation. When people have more money while the economy produces the same (or less) amount of goods/services you get inflation
    - themitigating 4y ago
      "I’m saying that those policies, along with many others, created inflation. " What matters is what had the most effect, you also only mentioned the stimulus in your original comment.
      - opportune 4y ago
        Sorry, jargon misunderstanding. All of those policies are stimulatory. I figured people would understand that “economic stimulus from the Fed + government” referred to all stimulus, not just the personal checks from the government Regardless, I stand by my assertion that these policies are the cause that led to effects like low unemployment, inflation, and increased corporate profits. The people only pointing to corporations are just picking who they want to be responsible.
treis 4y ago
If A causes B which causes C then it can be said that A caused C.
- naasking 4y ago
  Only if A necessarily causes B which then necessarily causes C. That is not the case, CEOs have agency to choose not to gouge their customers, aka C. Edit: and Congress has agency to impose price controls. It's been done before when profiteering became a problem.
AbrahamParangi 4y ago
The “corporate profiteering” thesis is so blatantly motivated that it shocks me that this is treated as a serious hypothesis. In what world is the massive, multiple waves of stimulus just completely unrelated but instead it’s those greedy corporations who are for some reason no longer bound by price competition.
- danaris 4y ago
  The stimulus that actually reached people was tiny. It was, what, 2 $2k checks or something? That's about 2 months' worth of income. There is no way in hell 2 months' worth of extra income in 2020 has anything to do with 3 years' worth of inflation.
  - AbrahamParangi 4y ago
    Just noticing that 2 months worth of extra income is a 16% increase. Prices between 2020 and 2022 went up by, on average, 16%. Also, payments to individuals and families accounted for only 30% or so of total Covid stimulus! But entities which are not people still spend money! Both on goods, services, and on salaries paid to people who then spend that money on goods and services. It just seems crazy to me to say “no way, it has nothing to do with the $5 trillion dollar stimulus.”
    - danaris 4y ago
      1) I don't recall the details of the aggregate amount of stimulus, but the total stimulus was not the payments to regular people. That was actually only a tiny fraction of it. Most of it went to businesses of various sorts. 2) Huge numbers of people lost their jobs or had their incomes reduced by significant amounts in 2020 due to the pandemic. Framing it as "people got an extra 16% and that was it" is hopelessly oversimplifying the situation. Thus, I cannot put any credence in the idea that the fact that both of those were about 16% is anything more than a coincidence. 3) Again, the duration of the inflation is not in any way commensurate with the duration of the stimulus. The last payment was in...what was it? March 2021? and now nearly 2 years later there's still "inflation" and people are talking about it as if it's primarily caused by those two tiny little stimulus checks. It just seems crazy to me to say "sure, that tiny bit of stimulus was the entire reason for several years of inflation; corporate greed has nothing whatsoever to do with it."
steve76 4y ago
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darkerside 4y ago

Why would you say it's they and not the tremendous amount of money pumped into the economy through COVID programs and artificially low interest rates?

naasking 4y ago
That money is included in the 2-3% I mentioned, the remainder is showing up on the corporate balance sheets as profits because they jacked up prices. For instance, see: https://youtu.be/udITRL9-t08 https://youtu.be/udITRL9-t08

datavirtue 4y ago

Back when the inflation hoopla started I watched the newshour desk (Amna, looking at you) very poorly hype it up. They had economists on to talk about it and they shrugged it off as corporate profiteering. You can always tell when they don't want to hear the truth. I yelled out the answer a few minutes before the economist did. They didn't invite her on to talk again. For some reason they just froth at the mouth at the prospect of systemic inflation. They will grab the reigns of the culture war and flog it mercilessly to the finish line but will never call out corporate collusion against workers nor the abuse of consumers lest Facebook or Walmart ease up on the "donations."

dasil003 4y ago
Agree with all of this, and it's even worse because collusion is not necessary. The profiteering requires no coordination at all. Just the narrative of inflation alone creates the smokescreen for individual corporations to all do this in lockstep without needing to so much as make eyes at each other across a tradeshow floor. Perfect deniability.
- gsatic 4y ago
  So what do you guys want more rate hikes till when? Cuz it seems like rate hikes are pretty much the only working lever the dumb mindless machine has.
  - johnny22 4y ago
    that is one of the few levers the Fed has. Congress not acting is the real problem.
  - t-writescode 4y ago
    I want my fellow person to earn a living wage for a working day, no matter the work and a safety net for when we all fall on bad times. If that means my burger goes up a dollar, I’m fine with that.

opportune 4y ago

Corporate profits are an effect, not a cause. And you’d expect profits to hit records after 20% cumulative inflation + not being able to hire enough people to expand the business. I don’t buy the supply chain argument much either, but I think the huge economic stimulus from the Fed and government + many people dying or exiting the workforce led to both wage inflation (pretty glaringly obvious looking at eg fast food pay, also in the amount of HC expansion in big tech, etc) and more dollars chasing goods/services that did not increase as quickly as the money supply.

themitigating 4y ago
The total stimulus was less than $3000 for most people and last provided a year ago. How can someone not work just getting that?
- opportune 4y ago
  Ok, now add all the money infused to the economy because of PPP and 0% interest rates, QE (did you know the Fed bought almost as many MBS during COVID as during the GFC?), rent forgiveness, and enhanced unemployment. All that money doesn’t just affect the person that receives it, it increases the monetary supply and flows throughout the entire economy I’m not saying people weren’t working because of the 3k stimulus or enhanced UE at all. I’m saying that those policies, along with many others, created inflation. When people have more money while the economy produces the same (or less) amount of goods/services you get inflation
  - themitigating 4y ago
    "I’m saying that those policies, along with many others, created inflation. " What matters is what had the most effect, you also only mentioned the stimulus in your original comment.
    - opportune 4y ago
      Sorry, jargon misunderstanding. All of those policies are stimulatory. I figured people would understand that “economic stimulus from the Fed + government” referred to all stimulus, not just the personal checks from the government Regardless, I stand by my assertion that these policies are the cause that led to effects like low unemployment, inflation, and increased corporate profits. The people only pointing to corporations are just picking who they want to be responsible.

treis 4y ago

If A causes B which causes C then it can be said that A caused C.

naasking 4y ago
Only if A necessarily causes B which then necessarily causes C. That is not the case, CEOs have agency to choose not to gouge their customers, aka C. Edit: and Congress has agency to impose price controls. It's been done before when profiteering became a problem.

AbrahamParangi 4y ago

The “corporate profiteering” thesis is so blatantly motivated that it shocks me that this is treated as a serious hypothesis. In what world is the massive, multiple waves of stimulus just completely unrelated but instead it’s those greedy corporations who are for some reason no longer bound by price competition.

danaris 4y ago
The stimulus that actually reached people was tiny. It was, what, 2 $2k checks or something? That's about 2 months' worth of income. There is no way in hell 2 months' worth of extra income in 2020 has anything to do with 3 years' worth of inflation.
- AbrahamParangi 4y ago
  Just noticing that 2 months worth of extra income is a 16% increase. Prices between 2020 and 2022 went up by, on average, 16%. Also, payments to individuals and families accounted for only 30% or so of total Covid stimulus! But entities which are not people still spend money! Both on goods, services, and on salaries paid to people who then spend that money on goods and services. It just seems crazy to me to say “no way, it has nothing to do with the $5 trillion dollar stimulus.”
  - danaris 4y ago
    1) I don't recall the details of the aggregate amount of stimulus, but the total stimulus was not the payments to regular people. That was actually only a tiny fraction of it. Most of it went to businesses of various sorts. 2) Huge numbers of people lost their jobs or had their incomes reduced by significant amounts in 2020 due to the pandemic. Framing it as "people got an extra 16% and that was it" is hopelessly oversimplifying the situation. Thus, I cannot put any credence in the idea that the fact that both of those were about 16% is anything more than a coincidence. 3) Again, the duration of the inflation is not in any way commensurate with the duration of the stimulus. The last payment was in...what was it? March 2021? and now nearly 2 years later there's still "inflation" and people are talking about it as if it's primarily caused by those two tiny little stimulus checks. It just seems crazy to me to say "sure, that tiny bit of stimulus was the entire reason for several years of inflation; corporate greed has nothing whatsoever to do with it."

steve76 4y ago

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