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Why is this a good explanation now, when 6 months ago it was being pooh-poohed? Take a look at the graphs in this article: https://www.politifact.com/article/2

Why is this a good explanation now, when 6 months ago it was being pooh-poohed? Take a look at the graphs in this article: https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/dec/10/what-do-high-corporate-profits-have-do-high-inflat/ https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/dec/10/what-do-high-... The graphs lay out a clear picture of rising corporate profit margins, meanwhile the text is saying to "Ignore the man behind the curtain." What's different today that the WSJ can run this piece today?

gnicholas 4y ago
Could be that price increases are remaining high, even as supply shocks have abated.
- autoexec 4y ago
  Of course that's what happened. Once companies saw they could make money hand over fist charging higher prices why on earth would they ever lower them back down once the supply issues were gone? Instead they just made record profits while they shifted the blame from "It's not our fault! There are shortages!" to "It's not our fault! It's inflation!" Meanwhile they've suckered a bunch of folks into blaming inflation on the pathetic amount of government aid we gave people during the pandemic so that they didn't immediately lose their homes or starve to death while nobody could work. Now consumers are facing record amounts of debit, and evictions and utility disconnections for non-pay are rising and people still think the problem is that Americans just have too much free money.
bugglebeetle 4y ago
The Fed started blowing up banks in its attempt to crush worker wages because when you kill a 1,000,000 plus people, disable countless more, force a bunch of early retirements etc you have to jack up rates super high, super fast to overcome wage increases from the resulting labor shortage. People who read the WSJ work at and invest in banks and don’t like to lose their shirts. So, they’re conceding to a little internecine war among the ownership class in the hope that the financiers can squelch the corporate price fixers before the banking system implodes.
- nervlord 4y ago
  [dead]
- robocat 4y ago
  > when you kill a 1,000,000 plus people > resulting labor shortage Alternatively when you kill a bunch of mostly retired and sick people, perhaps you increase unemployment (nurses and rest home workers freed up) and decrease spending (dead people don’t buy services or goods). Besides, the total number affected is a very low percent of the population, which is less significant than other economic changes over the previous 20 years. Without some deeper analysis, your cause and effect is purely hypothetical.
  - bugglebeetle 4y ago
    Okay, but its what the guy jacking up the rates said about the labor shortage himself, so… https://www.axios.com/2022/12/01/jay-powell-explains-americas-worker-shortage https://www.axios.com/2022/12/01/jay-powell-explains-america...
    - robocat 3y ago
      Interesting. Thank you heaps for adding that, it better explains what you were saying.

gnicholas 4y ago

Could be that price increases are remaining high, even as supply shocks have abated.

autoexec 4y ago
Of course that's what happened. Once companies saw they could make money hand over fist charging higher prices why on earth would they ever lower them back down once the supply issues were gone? Instead they just made record profits while they shifted the blame from "It's not our fault! There are shortages!" to "It's not our fault! It's inflation!" Meanwhile they've suckered a bunch of folks into blaming inflation on the pathetic amount of government aid we gave people during the pandemic so that they didn't immediately lose their homes or starve to death while nobody could work. Now consumers are facing record amounts of debit, and evictions and utility disconnections for non-pay are rising and people still think the problem is that Americans just have too much free money.

bugglebeetle 4y ago

The Fed started blowing up banks in its attempt to crush worker wages because when you kill a 1,000,000 plus people, disable countless more, force a bunch of early retirements etc you have to jack up rates super high, super fast to overcome wage increases from the resulting labor shortage. People who read the WSJ work at and invest in banks and don’t like to lose their shirts. So, they’re conceding to a little internecine war among the ownership class in the hope that the financiers can squelch the corporate price fixers before the banking system implodes.

nervlord 4y ago
[dead]
robocat 4y ago
> when you kill a 1,000,000 plus people > resulting labor shortage Alternatively when you kill a bunch of mostly retired and sick people, perhaps you increase unemployment (nurses and rest home workers freed up) and decrease spending (dead people don’t buy services or goods). Besides, the total number affected is a very low percent of the population, which is less significant than other economic changes over the previous 20 years. Without some deeper analysis, your cause and effect is purely hypothetical.
- bugglebeetle 4y ago
  Okay, but its what the guy jacking up the rates said about the labor shortage himself, so… https://www.axios.com/2022/12/01/jay-powell-explains-americas-worker-shortage https://www.axios.com/2022/12/01/jay-powell-explains-america...
  - robocat 3y ago
    Interesting. Thank you heaps for adding that, it better explains what you were saying.