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I may be wrong, but I don't think everyone blaming corporations necessarily thinks that they are the root cause - what many do agree on is that corporations are

I may be wrong, but I don't think everyone blaming corporations necessarily thinks that they are the root cause - what many do agree on is that corporations are taking advantage of the situation to make it worse. Of course, the root cause is poor monetary policy in general. That doesn't mean the actors are innocent. People are being laid off and prices are still going up - who is setting the prices? If you're jacking prices to cover sliding sales, yes, you are the problem.

hinkley 3y ago
In wartime it’s called profiteering and in some countries it counts as treason, which is to say it can get you hanged.
- johngladtj 3y ago
  Being wrong in wartime doesn't make it right in peacetime. No such thing as profiteering.
  - hinkley 3y ago
    Eh, they call it, “what the market will bear” and they’re quite proud of it. It’s a lot easier to do a lot of things when you Other the people you deal with, including exploitation and especially warcrimes. They don’t talk about citizens or people, they talk about “the market”, which is barely anthropomorphic.
    - gottorf 3y ago
      It's a lot easier to criticize "the market" when you live in a system that benefits from it. Life is universally worse in places where "the market" doesn't exist or economic actors aren't allowed to profit.
      - hinkley 3y ago
        I think you’re confusing “any benefit” with “net benefit”. The world, the US, and Capitalism would all survive just fine without McDonald’s, Walmart, or Oracle. In fact it would probably be better off without any of them. Global homogeneity is not awesome, it’s dystopian. Companies having less power than the 90th percentile of countries would be good. When you have a regional company you can still afford to think of your customers more or less as humans instead of statistics.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
toyg 3y ago
> Of course, the root cause is poor monetary policy in general. That doesn't mean the actors are innocent. Particularly when C-level execs continue to award themselves double-digit pay-rises, then publicly cry that wages should be compressed.
delusional 3y ago
> the root cause is poor monetary policy in general These two things aren't even separate. Part of monetary policy is taxation and subsidies. The argument for "greedflation" is exactly one of poor monetary policy, in that we have allowed corporations (not necessarily any one person, but the corporation as a whole) to dictate too much of our monetary policy, and they're doing a poor job.
- Treesrule14 3y ago
  At least in the US the fed has specifically had full employment as one of their goals at least for the last few years so I'm pretty skeptical of "corporations control the fed arguments" Like I agree there's a lot of regulatory capture in the US but I just don't see any reason to think the fed is responding to big business rather than their own preferences.
Treesrule14 3y ago
Ye olde Motte and Bailey. There are in fact people who are saying its only corporate inflation. The real reason i'm skeptical of the greed argument is that its just a vibes based guess on whats happening and not based on any data or insight into the situation.
A4ET8a8uTh0 3y ago
Yeah, it is a ridiculously bold to outright state it is not a factor of current inflation issues. At best you can argue that corporations 'only' further fuel it ( and take advantage in the process ), but are not primary factors for it rearing its head. Propaganda is strong, but I am starting to wonder if the powers that be learned nothing from Covid pushback to 'commute is your zen time'.
- pauldenton 3y ago
  It's not ridiculous. Nobody has proved greed goes up and down. It can be a constant like gravity. A gas station doesn't determine its prices based on greed, otherwise we would see stations that decide to charge a hundred bucks a gallon.
basch 3y ago
In transportation and logistics, it turned into a bidding war, with the biggest box shops able to outbid anyone else. So rail and trucking and ships made the most profit in the history of existence by pitting everyone else against each other for a limited supply. A bit of greed inflation and a bit of how a market economy works during a shortage. Now as shipping costs have dropped, companies have not dropped their prices accordingly because they have to cover their new massive headcounts and severance.
somenameforme 3y ago
The problem I have with these claims are the lack of examples. Which companies would you say have been unfairly exploiting inflation to raise profits? The data is all transparent. The reason I ask is because what I keep seeing is something people reacting to things like "Company ABC's profits increased by 5%, to record breaking levels!" And in many cases that's absolutely true. But if your profits increase by 5%, and inflation increases by 9% - it means you're both (1) showing record breaking profits and (2) getting absolutely economically wrecked.
- gjulianm 3y ago
  Just a quick example: BP almost doubled their profits in 2022 even when the price oil didn't really double with respect to 2021 prices. https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/news-and-insights/press-releases/fourth-quarter-2022-results.html https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/news-and-insights/pre... > But if your profits increase by 5%, and inflation increases by 9% One should actually look not at inflation but at the increase in costs of that company. Not all companies are equally exposed to inflation, they will suffer different price increases.
- Sohcahtoa82 3y ago
  Maybe instead of focusing on profits we should focus on profit margins. If your profit margin is increasing, then inflation means less.
gottorf 3y ago
Every seller needs a buyer for a transaction to happen. For some reason, people are still happy to take 84-month notes on $80k cars instead of sticking to their older car or buying a cheaper one; same with expensive beef, which could be substituted by lentils or other cheaper sources of protein. A part, perhaps even a large part, of that "some reason" is likely the increase in money supply as well as fiscal stimulus. But consumers still share a part of the blame, if they willingly take on that transaction for non-essential goods and services. Few businesses have the pricing power to jack up their prices arbitrarily high, though there is a clear trend towards consolidation across many industries in the recent decades, and one could definitely argue that the US hasn't busted enough mergers and trusts.
pauldenton 3y ago
The people taking advantage of the situation to make it worse aren't the ones raising prices in the last 3 years. It's the one who pushed Covid restrictions and shutting down the world, who's repercussions we are still living with

hinkley 3y ago

In wartime it’s called profiteering and in some countries it counts as treason, which is to say it can get you hanged.

johngladtj 3y ago
Being wrong in wartime doesn't make it right in peacetime. No such thing as profiteering.
- hinkley 3y ago
  Eh, they call it, “what the market will bear” and they’re quite proud of it. It’s a lot easier to do a lot of things when you Other the people you deal with, including exploitation and especially warcrimes. They don’t talk about citizens or people, they talk about “the market”, which is barely anthropomorphic.
  - gottorf 3y ago
    It's a lot easier to criticize "the market" when you live in a system that benefits from it. Life is universally worse in places where "the market" doesn't exist or economic actors aren't allowed to profit.
    - hinkley 3y ago
      I think you’re confusing “any benefit” with “net benefit”. The world, the US, and Capitalism would all survive just fine without McDonald’s, Walmart, or Oracle. In fact it would probably be better off without any of them. Global homogeneity is not awesome, it’s dystopian. Companies having less power than the 90th percentile of countries would be good. When you have a regional company you can still afford to think of your customers more or less as humans instead of statistics.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

toyg 3y ago

> Of course, the root cause is poor monetary policy in general. That doesn't mean the actors are innocent. Particularly when C-level execs continue to award themselves double-digit pay-rises, then publicly cry that wages should be compressed.

delusional 3y ago

> the root cause is poor monetary policy in general These two things aren't even separate. Part of monetary policy is taxation and subsidies. The argument for "greedflation" is exactly one of poor monetary policy, in that we have allowed corporations (not necessarily any one person, but the corporation as a whole) to dictate too much of our monetary policy, and they're doing a poor job.

Treesrule14 3y ago
At least in the US the fed has specifically had full employment as one of their goals at least for the last few years so I'm pretty skeptical of "corporations control the fed arguments" Like I agree there's a lot of regulatory capture in the US but I just don't see any reason to think the fed is responding to big business rather than their own preferences.

Treesrule14 3y ago

Ye olde Motte and Bailey. There are in fact people who are saying its only corporate inflation. The real reason i'm skeptical of the greed argument is that its just a vibes based guess on whats happening and not based on any data or insight into the situation.

A4ET8a8uTh0 3y ago

Yeah, it is a ridiculously bold to outright state it is not a factor of current inflation issues. At best you can argue that corporations 'only' further fuel it ( and take advantage in the process ), but are not primary factors for it rearing its head. Propaganda is strong, but I am starting to wonder if the powers that be learned nothing from Covid pushback to 'commute is your zen time'.

pauldenton 3y ago
It's not ridiculous. Nobody has proved greed goes up and down. It can be a constant like gravity. A gas station doesn't determine its prices based on greed, otherwise we would see stations that decide to charge a hundred bucks a gallon.

basch 3y ago

In transportation and logistics, it turned into a bidding war, with the biggest box shops able to outbid anyone else. So rail and trucking and ships made the most profit in the history of existence by pitting everyone else against each other for a limited supply. A bit of greed inflation and a bit of how a market economy works during a shortage. Now as shipping costs have dropped, companies have not dropped their prices accordingly because they have to cover their new massive headcounts and severance.

somenameforme 3y ago

The problem I have with these claims are the lack of examples. Which companies would you say have been unfairly exploiting inflation to raise profits? The data is all transparent. The reason I ask is because what I keep seeing is something people reacting to things like "Company ABC's profits increased by 5%, to record breaking levels!" And in many cases that's absolutely true. But if your profits increase by 5%, and inflation increases by 9% - it means you're both (1) showing record breaking profits and (2) getting absolutely economically wrecked.

gjulianm 3y ago
Just a quick example: BP almost doubled their profits in 2022 even when the price oil didn't really double with respect to 2021 prices. https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/news-and-insights/press-releases/fourth-quarter-2022-results.html https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/news-and-insights/pre... > But if your profits increase by 5%, and inflation increases by 9% One should actually look not at inflation but at the increase in costs of that company. Not all companies are equally exposed to inflation, they will suffer different price increases.
Sohcahtoa82 3y ago
Maybe instead of focusing on profits we should focus on profit margins. If your profit margin is increasing, then inflation means less.

gottorf 3y ago

Every seller needs a buyer for a transaction to happen. For some reason, people are still happy to take 84-month notes on $80k cars instead of sticking to their older car or buying a cheaper one; same with expensive beef, which could be substituted by lentils or other cheaper sources of protein. A part, perhaps even a large part, of that "some reason" is likely the increase in money supply as well as fiscal stimulus. But consumers still share a part of the blame, if they willingly take on that transaction for non-essential goods and services. Few businesses have the pricing power to jack up their prices arbitrarily high, though there is a clear trend towards consolidation across many industries in the recent decades, and one could definitely argue that the US hasn't busted enough mergers and trusts.

pauldenton 3y ago

The people taking advantage of the situation to make it worse aren't the ones raising prices in the last 3 years. It's the one who pushed Covid restrictions and shutting down the world, who's repercussions we are still living with