Biden's America

[JJ Husker]

5 hours ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

 

This is a website with an agenda. but their numbers aren't wrong.

 

https://www.accountable.us/news/pandemic-profiteering-albertsons-companies-walgreens-and-ups-2/

 

I believe if you look at many if not most large corporations warning about inflationary pricing, you'll find a company that is actually doing quite well --- possibly having even profited from the pandemic.  Given that inflation is largely traced to both supply chain issues and massive government cash infusion from a global crisis, you might consider it a temporary condition that we all need to ride out together. It's worse in the case of General Mills, which owns tons of package goods brands and foodstuffs, for which a 20% price increase hurts the people who can least afford it. 

And what is your point? That companies that did well through the pandemic should not raise their prices in line with their rising input costs? That they should tank on purpose?

 

My extremely small company did rather well through the pandemic but I am still increasing my sales prices because my raw material costs have gone through the roof. My labor costs have increased, virtually everything has gone up due to inflation. Am I supposed to play the martyr and buck the trend?

 

And BTW, I bought some General Mills and Kellogs stock early on in the pandemic thinking they would perform well with restaurants shut down and people eating more meals at home. Its been a lackluster addition to the portfolio. If they’re making too much they sure aren’t passing any along to shareholders.

[Guy Chamberlin]

44 minutes ago, JJ Husker said:

And what is your point? That companies that did well through the pandemic should not raise their prices in line with their rising input costs? That they should tank on purpose?

 

My extremely small company did rather well through the pandemic but I am still increasing my sales prices because my raw material costs have gone through the roof. My labor costs have increased, virtually everything has gone up due to inflation. Am I supposed to play the martyr and buck the trend?

 

And BTW, I bought some General Mills and Kellogs stock early on in the pandemic thinking they would perform well with restaurants shut down and people eating more meals at home. Its been a lackluster addition to the portfolio. If they’re making too much they sure aren’t passing any along to shareholders.

 

Tank?  That's an extreme way to describe this, which is pretty much the problem.

 

And didn't I specifically exclude smaller businesses who don't have a lot of built-in padding? 

 

We keep hearing about plucky entrepreneurs fighting to hold their business together, local municipalities waving tax revenue to help at-risk small businesses, and of course the "resilient" average Americans who inspire us with their sacrifices. 

 

So yeah, when a company with 21 billion in profits and large executive bonuses declares that it must raise consumer prices to avoid having only 19.3 billion in profits and slightly smaller executive bonuses, I think you get to call them out. It's the same s#!tty excuse they've had for not raising employee salaries in the wake of tremendous executive compensation.

 

And you call that "tanking?"  And "martyrdom?"  Really?

 

And am I to assume you're cool with inflation if it helps your stock portfolio, or do you go to the trouble of adding up how much that stock bump actually costs you and others? 

[JJ Husker]

8 minutes ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

 

Tank?  That's an extreme way to describe this, which is pretty much the problem.

 

And didn't I specifically exclude smaller businesses who don't have a lot of built-in padding? 

 

We keep hearing about plucky entrepreneurs fighting to hold their business together, local municipalities waving tax revenue to help at-risk small businesses, and of course the "resilient" average Americans who inspire us with their sacrifices. 

 

So yeah, when a company with 21 billion in profits and large executive bonuses declares that it must raise consumer prices to avoid having only 19.3 billion in profits and slightly smaller executive bonuses, I think you get to call them out. It's the same s#!tty excuse they've had for not raising employee salaries in the wake of tremendous executive compensation.

 

And you call that "tanking?"  And "martyrdom?"  Really?

 

And am I to assume you're cool with inflation if it helps your stock portfolio, or do you go to the trouble of adding up how much that stock bump actually costs you and others? 

I’ve got no problem calling them out for ridiculous executive bonuses or for legit price gouging. But the simple fact that they may be raising prices in the midst of inflation like this, I don’t think that alone makes them evil.

 

No, I’m not cool with inflation but you used General Mills as an example and unless it’s all going to aforementioned executive bonuses, I sure haven’t seen their profits rising. At least it hasn’t manifested in increased stock prices or dividends. I am cool with stocks I own or buy for a specific economic hedge doing okay however.

[Archy1221]

29 minutes ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

It's the same s#!tty excuse they've had for not raising employee salaries in the wake of tremendous executive compensation.

You will never fix this problem by just raising employee salaries.   You couldn’t ever raise them enough because executives make most of their big money off options.  ESO’s are what has caused the biggest portion of the C-level/employee compensation divide to expand so quickly.  

[Guy Chamberlin]

12 minutes ago, Archy1221 said:

You will never fix this problem by just raising employee salaries.   You couldn’t ever raise them enough because executives make most of their big money off options.  ESO’s are what has caused the biggest portion of the C-level/employee compensation divide to expand so quickly.  

 

I guess. But that's not a reason not to address employee salaries.

 

The overriding issue is that America managed to thrive when Executive compensation was 21x the average worker in 1965 (or 60:1 in 1989) but has ballooned to 350:1 in 2020. And somehow today's executives have convinced hardworking Americans that anything less than 350:1 is a risk to their jobs provider and stockholder duties.

 

I don't know if ESOs are about stock buybacks, but I do know that companies used billions of dollars in stimulus money to buy back stocks for executives, and invest in robotics and other technologies that will replace the workforce. It's absolutely bizarre these guys get to cast themselves as victims, and that riding out inflation for a fiscal quarter or two would rise to the level of martyrdom. 

[JJ Husker]

50 minutes ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

 

I guess. But that's not a reason not to address employee salaries.

 

The overriding issue is that America managed to thrive when Executive compensation was 21x the average worker in 1965 (or 60:1 in 1989) but has ballooned to 350:1 in 2020. And somehow today's executives have convinced hardworking Americans that anything less than 350:1 is a risk to their jobs provider and stockholder duties.

 

I don't know if ESOs are about stock buybacks, but I do know that companies used billions of dollars in stimulus money to buy back stocks for executives, and invest in robotics and other technologies that will replace the workforce. It's absolutely bizarre these guys get to cast themselves as victims, and that riding out inflation for a fiscal quarter or two would rise to the level of martyrdom. 

This is a much different scenario than simply prefacing the situation because a company increased prices. That is what I was pushing back against earlier. Prices are going to increase and not all of it is due to nefarious corporations and executives. But sure some of it is, like always.

[BigRedBuster]

6 hours ago, JJ Husker said:

And what is your point? That companies that did well through the pandemic should not raise their prices in line with their rising input costs? That they should tank on purpose?

 

My extremely small company did rather well through the pandemic but I am still increasing my sales prices because my raw material costs have gone through the roof. My labor costs have increased, virtually everything has gone up due to inflation. Am I supposed to play the martyr and buck the trend?

 

And BTW, I bought some General Mills and Kellogs stock early on in the pandemic thinking they would perform well with restaurants shut down and people eating more meals at home. Its been a lackluster addition to the portfolio. If they’re making too much they sure aren’t passing any along to shareholders.

I agree. 

[teachercd]

Where did this weird idea come from that if prices of s#!t shot way up and if labor costs shot up at a rate that clearly is insane...that companies would not have to start charging more?

 

Some of you live in the clouds.  

 

I don't own a business but if I did I would be charging more.  

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

14 minutes ago, teachercd said:

Where did this weird idea come from that if prices of s#!t shot way up and if labor costs shot up at a rate that clearly is insane...that companies would not have to start charging more?

 

Some of you live in the clouds.  

 

I don't own a business but if I did I would be charging more.  

 

 

It’s a strange thought process some people have. 

[teachercd]

43 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

It’s a strange thought process some people have. 

No kidding...Davey HS Junior is making 16 dollars an hour a Home Depot now...last year he was making 9.  That s#!t adds up.

[Archy1221]

1 hour ago, teachercd said:

No kidding...Davey HS Junior is making 16 dollars an hour a Home Depot now...last year he was making 9.  That s#!t adds up.

Foods getting so expensive I’m about ready to tell the kids it’s hot dogs, spaghetti, or PBJ for dinner now on.   Might treat them to a manwhich once a week though as a substitute to the old steak night 

[teachercd]

20 minutes ago, Archy1221 said:

Foods getting so expensive I’m about ready to tell the kids it’s hot dogs, spaghetti, or PBJ for dinner now on.   Might treat them to a manwhich once a week though as a substitute to the old steak night 

I spend about 20-25% more each week on food.  No s#!t.

[Born N Bled Red]

17 hours ago, JJ Husker said:

I’ve got no problem calling them out for ridiculous executive bonuses or for legit price gouging. But the simple fact that they may be raising prices in the midst of inflation like this, I don’t think that alone makes them evil.

 

No, I’m not cool with inflation but you used General Mills as an example and unless it’s all going to aforementioned executive bonuses, I sure haven’t seen their profits rising. At least it hasn’t manifested in increased stock prices or dividends. I am cool with stocks I own or buy for a specific economic hedge doing okay however.

 

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/inflation-price-gouging/

 

From CNBC:

Oil giant BP reports highest profit in 8 years on soaring commodity prices

From Reuters:

Cereal maker Kellogg Co. forecast full-year profit growth above market expectations on Thursday, riding on higher product prices that helped overcome labor strike disruptions and soaring input costs in the fourth quarter.

From The New York Times:

Procter & Gamble’s sales jump as consumers brush off rising prices.

From The Ticker:

McDonald’s to raise prices despite record revenue

From Yahoo Finance:

Amazon stock soars 15% after earnings, will hike Prime membership fee

 

Corporate greed is Chipotle increasing its profits by 181% last year to $764 million, giving its CEO a 137% pay raise to $38 million in 2020 and blaming the rising cost of a burrito on a minimum wage worker who got a 50 cent pay raise. That’s not inflation. That’s price gouging.

 

 

In short, despite very different stimulus policies, Europe and the U.S. are experiencing similar price pressures due to supply shocks. And one result that adds to the inflation is opportunistic price hikes and excess profits.

The big investment banks booked record profits in 2021. Likewise the platform monopolies. Amazon just reported profits of $14.3 billion on the fourth quarter alone, double its fourth-quarter profits of 2020.

On an earnings call with Wall Street analysts this morning, the meat giant Tyson reported earnings per share up by 50 percent over last year, driven by price increases of 32 percent in beef, 20 percent in chicken, and 13 percent in pork. These price hikes to consumers go neither to farmers nor to supermarkets but to giant monopoly middlemen like Tyson.

Ocean shippers have quintupled their rates, and booked astronomical returns of $150 billion in 2021, up from $25 billion in 2020. This price-gouging reflects the extreme economic concentration that has resulted from deregulation coupled with a four-decade failure to enforce the antitrust laws. All of this comes at the expense of consumers and of workers whose nominal pay is up but in most cases lags behind price hikes.

 

https://prospect.org/blogs/tap/inflation-and-price-gouging/

 

In April, Procter & Gamble announced it would start charging more for consumer staples ranging from diapers to toilet paper, citing “rising costs for raw materials, such as resin and pulp, and higher expenses to transport goods”.

But P&G is making huge profits. In the quarter ending 30 September, after some of its price increases went into effect, it reported a whopping 24.7% profit margin. It even spent $3bn during the quarter buying its own stock.

It could raise prices and rake in more money because P&G faces almost no competition. The lion’s share of the market for diapers, to take one example, is controlled by just two companies – P&G and Kimberly-Clark – which roughly coordinate their prices and production. It was hardly a coincidence that Kimberly-Clark announced price increases similar to P&Gs at the same time P&G announced its own price increases.

Or consider another consumer product duopoly – PepsiCo (the parent company of Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Quaker, Tropicana, and other brands), and Coca-Cola. In April, PepsiCo announced it was increasing prices, blaming “higher costs for some ingredients, freight and labor”. Rubbish. The company didn’t have to raise prices. It recorded $3bn in operating profits through September.

If PepsiCo faced tough competition, it could never have gotten away with this. But it doesn’t. To the contrary, it appears to have colluded with Coca-Cola – which, oddly, announced price increases at about the same time as PepsiCo, and has increased its profit margins to 28.9%.

You can see a similar pattern in energy prices. If energy markets were competitive, producers would have quickly ramped up production to create more supply, once it became clear that demand was growing. But they didn’t.

Why not? Industry experts say oil and gas companies saw bigger money in letting prices run higher before producing more supply. They can get away with this because big oil and gas producers don’t operate in a competitive market. They can manipulate supply by coordinating among themselves.

In sum, inflation isn’t driving most of these price increases. Corporate power is driving them.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/11/us-inflation-market-power-america-antitrust-robert-reich

[Born N Bled Red]

This is the real reason inflation is up. 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/business/pandemic-savings.html

 

It's the continuous siphoning of any accrual of wealth by the middle and lower class. The nursing home and healthcare industries are designed to prevent the inheritance of generational wealth as well. 

[BigRedBuster]

32 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/inflation-price-gouging/

 

From CNBC:

Oil giant BP reports highest profit in 8 years on soaring commodity prices

From Reuters:

Cereal maker Kellogg Co. forecast full-year profit growth above market expectations on Thursday, riding on higher product prices that helped overcome labor strike disruptions and soaring input costs in the fourth quarter.

From The New York Times:

Procter & Gamble’s sales jump as consumers brush off rising prices.

From The Ticker:

McDonald’s to raise prices despite record revenue

From Yahoo Finance:

Amazon stock soars 15% after earnings, will hike Prime membership fee

 

Corporate greed is Chipotle increasing its profits by 181% last year to $764 million, giving its CEO a 137% pay raise to $38 million in 2020 and blaming the rising cost of a burrito on a minimum wage worker who got a 50 cent pay raise. That’s not inflation. That’s price gouging.

 

 

In short, despite very different stimulus policies, Europe and the U.S. are experiencing similar price pressures due to supply shocks. And one result that adds to the inflation is opportunistic price hikes and excess profits.

The big investment banks booked record profits in 2021. Likewise the platform monopolies. Amazon just reported profits of $14.3 billion on the fourth quarter alone, double its fourth-quarter profits of 2020.

On an earnings call with Wall Street analysts this morning, the meat giant Tyson reported earnings per share up by 50 percent over last year, driven by price increases of 32 percent in beef, 20 percent in chicken, and 13 percent in pork. These price hikes to consumers go neither to farmers nor to supermarkets but to giant monopoly middlemen like Tyson.

Ocean shippers have quintupled their rates, and booked astronomical returns of $150 billion in 2021, up from $25 billion in 2020. This price-gouging reflects the extreme economic concentration that has resulted from deregulation coupled with a four-decade failure to enforce the antitrust laws. All of this comes at the expense of consumers and of workers whose nominal pay is up but in most cases lags behind price hikes.

 

https://prospect.org/blogs/tap/inflation-and-price-gouging/

 

In April, Procter & Gamble announced it would start charging more for consumer staples ranging from diapers to toilet paper, citing “rising costs for raw materials, such as resin and pulp, and higher expenses to transport goods”.

But P&G is making huge profits. In the quarter ending 30 September, after some of its price increases went into effect, it reported a whopping 24.7% profit margin. It even spent $3bn during the quarter buying its own stock.

It could raise prices and rake in more money because P&G faces almost no competition. The lion’s share of the market for diapers, to take one example, is controlled by just two companies – P&G and Kimberly-Clark – which roughly coordinate their prices and production. It was hardly a coincidence that Kimberly-Clark announced price increases similar to P&Gs at the same time P&G announced its own price increases.

Or consider another consumer product duopoly – PepsiCo (the parent company of Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Quaker, Tropicana, and other brands), and Coca-Cola. In April, PepsiCo announced it was increasing prices, blaming “higher costs for some ingredients, freight and labor”. Rubbish. The company didn’t have to raise prices. It recorded $3bn in operating profits through September.

If PepsiCo faced tough competition, it could never have gotten away with this. But it doesn’t. To the contrary, it appears to have colluded with Coca-Cola – which, oddly, announced price increases at about the same time as PepsiCo, and has increased its profit margins to 28.9%.

You can see a similar pattern in energy prices. If energy markets were competitive, producers would have quickly ramped up production to create more supply, once it became clear that demand was growing. But they didn’t.

Why not? Industry experts say oil and gas companies saw bigger money in letting prices run higher before producing more supply. They can get away with this because big oil and gas producers don’t operate in a competitive market. They can manipulate supply by coordinating among themselves.

In sum, inflation isn’t driving most of these price increases. Corporate power is driving them.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/11/us-inflation-market-power-america-antitrust-robert-reich

 

The McDonalds example is pathetic.  Revenue is not profit.  I could increase my revenue 10 fold and be losing money.