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High interest rates are certainly erasing some forms of irrational allocation that can’t be sustained under them (e.g. all the crypto stuff), but the collusion
by bugglebeetle 3y ago
High interest rates are certainly erasing some forms of irrational allocation that can’t be sustained under them (e.g. all the crypto stuff), but the collusion between firms on things like return to office, wage suppression, and price gouging is largely independent of them.
- yibg 3y agoYou keep talking about collusion. Do you have any supporting data to back this up?
- bugglebeetle 3y agoEvery FAANG simultaneously decided they needed to layoff roughly the same percentage of workers, and even more through return to office, with no justification or demonstrated impact on profits, productivity etc, they share large investors, and oh, yes, they all got busted for colluding in the past? It’s all pretty much out there in the open.
- IX-103 3y agoNot to mention they're immediately hiring to replace those workers that they laid off. The management is either incompetent or they're trying to depress wages. They openly admit they're trying to achieve "durable savings" which seems like it may be an MBA code word for depressing wages.
- soupfordummies 3y agoWhat if it’s not a decision made in a smoky back room behind closed doors but rather monkey-see-monkey-do/“hey we can get away with it”? Definitely is weird to say the least. Even small companies often have HUGE investment firms behind them of course.
- thrway63245 3y agoThis is exactly what you would have said the last time there was proven collusion. It takes a while for the proof to come out, but as the sibling comment says: it's awfully convenient that all the RTO policies and layoff ratios are in alignment.
- alexashka 3y agoCollusion is the default human condition. It is absence of collusion that has to be proven. Or are we assuming governments around the world are effectively preventing collusion of multi-national corporations? Now that would require incredible proof.
- braelen7 3y ago[flagged]
- nyssos 3y agoThose things don't constitute a capital strike. Businesses don't suppress wages to strongarm the government, they suppress wages because they want higher profits. Likewise with prices. Return to office might be more organizational pathology than rational self-interest, but it's still not an attempt to influence policy.
- sharts 3y ago> Businesses don't suppress wages to strongarm the government, They do threaten to relocate operations overseas. And when they do, the wages paid may indeed be "higher" than average in the new regions.
- bugglebeetle 3y agoMaybe, but there was also bipartisan legislation to crush the rail strike, simultaneous dismantling of pandemic protections on the state and national levels, the removal of the child tax credit, and so on and so forth.
- anon1199022 3y agoThat crypto part is an assumption. If you want real irrational allocation, check back to office and how and of capital overlords are pushing it for no rational reason.
- bugglebeetle 3y agoI would say it’s more rational than crypto as the tech companies investors and commercial real estate investors have a significant degree of overlap. Crypto was little more than digital tulip mania.
- anon1199022 3y agoyou know that's exactly what they said in 2017 about crypto and now Blackrock is pushing an ETF. what a tulip that was pushed by biggest financial org. isn't it. 0 handsight about future
- bugglebeetle 3y agoThere’s a sucker born every minute.
- tyrfing 3y agoHere's the problem: "crypto stuff" is just the easy, low hanging fruit. That went away when the Fed began hiking. We're long past that now, with 30 year treasuries at 5%, and venture capital defines itself by extremely long duration speculative investment. That's irrational allocation in a world with high real rates.