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Over 50% of the increased prices are from producers not just recouping their additional expenses, but also increasing profit margins. Typically you would expec

by barake 2y ago

Over 50% of the increased prices are from producers not just recouping their additional expenses, but also increasing profit margins. Typically you would expect this to be an opportunity for competition, but generally speaking companies are suspiciously raising prices together. They've taken advantage of the COVID shortage and inflation narratives to squeeze consumers. https://fortune.com/2024/01/20/inflation-greedflation-consumer-price-index-producer-price-index-corporate-profit/ https://fortune.com/2024/01/20/inflation-greedflation-consum... https://www.marketplace.org/2024/08/05/ftc-grocery-prices/ https://www.marketplace.org/2024/08/05/ftc-grocery-prices/

stackskipton 2y ago
>Typically you would expect this to be an opportunity for competition What competition? Most of them have merged into massive blobs.
- ToucanLoucan 2y ago
  Corporate consolidation is one of the biggest and least talked about boogeymen of our current era, one which is set to get even worse under Trump's second term. The Biden admin barely, kind of, got anti-trust authorities somewhat working again, and that will be demolished on day 1 of Trump. Bigger corpos means bigger donations to bigger candidates. The entire system runs on money and nobody's got money to put in like these supercorps. We live in Gerontocracy that is actively building a Corporatocracy to replace it after the Boomers die off entirely and no money will ever go to the working class again.
  - mtswish 2y ago
    > The Biden admin barely, kind of, got anti-trust authorities somewhat working again, and that will be demolished on day 1 of Trump. You are grossly underselling the work of Lina Khan and the FTC.
    - ToucanLoucan 2y ago
      And what will it matter when on day 1 of the next administration, it's all blown out the airlock? If your change is no more durable than a single election, you didn't accomplish shit.
      - mtswish 2y ago
        > If your change is no more durable than a single election, you didn't accomplish shit. That is the way that the country works! The system is working as intended if a single government appointment can't unilaterally destroy monopolies in a single term.
    - nsokolsky 2y ago
      Could you name the top-3 examples of the FTC's work over the past 4 years that were net-helpful to the future GDP/capita of the US economy?
tiahura 2y ago
Inflation isn't just a fiscal (even though Biden failed on the fiscal side as well) or monetary phenomena, it's psychological - i.e. expectations about future prices. Because the Biden administration was characteristically incompetent (Remember Treasury Secretary doing interviews saying that inflation was just a short-term blip and not persistent?) inflation started to get out of control. Once that happened, 30+ years of low inflation expectations went out the window. Market psychology changed, and because people now expected prices to rise, they weren't as resistant to individual price changes. This gave producers (along with legit covid supply side issues) breathing room to increase prices.
- yazantapuz 2y ago
  This. Just have to look at the last twenty years of argentina.
wbl 2y ago
What do you think inflation is? Demand shoots up, suppliers raise prices or run out, and it takes time for new capacity to be rewarded and created. There's no collusion here.

by barake 2y ago

stackskipton 2y ago

>Typically you would expect this to be an opportunity for competition What competition? Most of them have merged into massive blobs.

ToucanLoucan 2y ago
Corporate consolidation is one of the biggest and least talked about boogeymen of our current era, one which is set to get even worse under Trump's second term. The Biden admin barely, kind of, got anti-trust authorities somewhat working again, and that will be demolished on day 1 of Trump. Bigger corpos means bigger donations to bigger candidates. The entire system runs on money and nobody's got money to put in like these supercorps. We live in Gerontocracy that is actively building a Corporatocracy to replace it after the Boomers die off entirely and no money will ever go to the working class again.
- mtswish 2y ago
  > The Biden admin barely, kind of, got anti-trust authorities somewhat working again, and that will be demolished on day 1 of Trump. You are grossly underselling the work of Lina Khan and the FTC.
  - ToucanLoucan 2y ago
    And what will it matter when on day 1 of the next administration, it's all blown out the airlock? If your change is no more durable than a single election, you didn't accomplish shit.
    - mtswish 2y ago
      > If your change is no more durable than a single election, you didn't accomplish shit. That is the way that the country works! The system is working as intended if a single government appointment can't unilaterally destroy monopolies in a single term.
  - nsokolsky 2y ago
    Could you name the top-3 examples of the FTC's work over the past 4 years that were net-helpful to the future GDP/capita of the US economy?

tiahura 2y ago

Inflation isn't just a fiscal (even though Biden failed on the fiscal side as well) or monetary phenomena, it's psychological - i.e. expectations about future prices. Because the Biden administration was characteristically incompetent (Remember Treasury Secretary doing interviews saying that inflation was just a short-term blip and not persistent?) inflation started to get out of control. Once that happened, 30+ years of low inflation expectations went out the window. Market psychology changed, and because people now expected prices to rise, they weren't as resistant to individual price changes. This gave producers (along with legit covid supply side issues) breathing room to increase prices.

yazantapuz 2y ago
This. Just have to look at the last twenty years of argentina.

wbl 2y ago

What do you think inflation is? Demand shoots up, suppliers raise prices or run out, and it takes time for new capacity to be rewarded and created. There's no collusion here.