Economy

[JJ Husker]

56 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

You gotta read the article my man, these are NET profits, not gross. Their profit margins have increased to record levels. And I am certain you are paying for increased shipping rates due to the globalized greed of our price gouging oil industry. How much of inflation throughout the supply chain can be attributed to fuel costs do you think? 

 

Your suppliers pay higher shipping costs and pass those on to you, you pay higher shipping costs and pass both your costs and your supplier costs on to the wholesaler, the wholesaler passes all those shipping cost plus their shipping costs on to the end sales, who pass all of those shipping costs on to the consumers. In truth when it comes to inflation calculation the costs of goods probably hasn't gone up- its the cost of shipping those goods that have been passed on to the consumer, then you factor in that the consumers also pay for fuel and is a MAJOR line item in the inflation category and then it becomes hugely apparent that MOST of inflation is the result of high fuel prices. Maybe a bit of it comes from increased labor costs, but I'd recon 70% of our inflation rate is accounted by the near tripling of fuel costs. Its just masked as its passed on (as shipping costs) to consumers through the sale of goods. 

 

No wonder oil companies are reporting record profits. 

 

I won’t dispute that oil/fuel is a huge contributing factor in most inflation but it does not fully explain my primary raw materials, steel, stainless and aluminum. But that wasn’t the point of my post. I’ll concede your claim that greed is at the root of oil prices for this discussion’s sake.

However, my point is, greed is not the only or maybe even the best explanation for all/much of inflation. I could sell my items for less than I am and I am experiencing record profits. It’s not greed, it’s simply the way our system works. Things get sold for what the market will bear. If I cut my prices, theoretically I would have higher demand for my services. I don’t want higher demand as finding additional employees right now is no picnic. So I sell for what people are willing to pay and am having much higher profits. My question was, is that greed?

 

I know my type of business is quite a bit different than larger oil companies, retailers, etc. as my company is extremely small but record profits alone are not an indicator of greed imo. (even if that may be the case for oil companies).

[BigRedBuster]

5 hours ago, JJ Husker said:

I've got a stupid question.

If millions of people have left the work force (relatively few of them due to death from Covid) and businesses are short millions of employees to fill positions......what exactly are those millions of people doing to earn a living and pay their expenses?

 

I mean sure we all would like to just quit working but there's this little thing called money that is usually kind of nice to have, you know, for things like food, water, shelter.....  I'm struggling to figure out how that many people just decide to quit working and apparently it's not a problem for them. What am I missing?

In 2020, we had 3 times the number retire as normal. I believe that was people maybe in their late 50s  and older. So, these were people in the work force but, had enough money to retire. They finally said f#&% it and retired. 
 

I believe 2021 saw more than normal retire also. 
 

So, there is just a ton of people that are retired. Good for them. Businesses just have to deal with them gone. 

[funhusker]

38 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

In 2020, we had 3 times the number retire as normal. I believe that was people maybe in their late 50s  and older. So, these were people in the work force but, had enough money to retire. They finally said f#&% it and retired. 
 

I believe 2021 saw more than normal retire also. 
 

So, there is just a ton of people that are retired. Good for them. Businesses just have to deal with them gone. 

I wonder how the number of teachers leaving the last couple of years effects the numbers.  Many get different jobs.  But I think a lot of the time, many of them are young mothers with husbands that work.  And they just find a way to be stay at home moms.

 

I also think the restaurant staff exodus did a number to the food service industry.  Again, how many waitresses were moms working two jobs or looking to make some extra cash during the week after a husband got home from work.  They found a way to "get by" when tips really sucked and just decided not to go back.

 

I'm going to get nailed about all the misogyny in this post, aren't I?!?

[Born N Bled Red]

11 hours ago, funhusker said:

I wonder how the number of teachers leaving the last couple of years effects the numbers.  Many get different jobs.  But I think a lot of the time, many of them are young mothers with husbands that work.  And they just find a way to be stay at home moms.

 

I also think the restaurant staff exodus did a number to the food service industry.  Again, how many waitresses were moms working two jobs or looking to make some extra cash during the week after a husband got home from work.  They found a way to "get by" when tips really sucked and just decided not to go back.

 

I'm going to get nailed about all the misogyny in this post, aren't I?!?

 

My biggest fear is not the lack of workforce once all these boomers retire, though it is certainly an issue now, but is instead the lack of buying power as they all die out. What happens to an economy when there are millions fewer customers as there once was?

[DevoHusker]

32 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

My biggest fear is not the lack of workforce once all these boomers retire, though it is certainly an issue now, but is instead the lack of buying power as they all die out. What happens to an economy when there are millions fewer customers as there once was?

Agree. And, typically, Boomers have a lot of discretionary money to spend...unlike other generational groups.

[ZRod]

Not sure where to put this, but with all the Jon Stewart videos regarding the GOP's lies to veterans and the military, I've been thinking about how you fix the problem of the military industrial complex. How do you get the money out of Washington and the economy off the tit of the military?

 

What if we limit the percentage of revenue from military products for companies? Just for S and Gees say something like 50% or less can be from military projects, and if you are spending lobbying money, then 75% or less? Some kind of tax penalty if it isn't followed? That's just a hairball idea, but we have a huge problem of whole micro economies in small towns and big cities that rely on government money to build tanks, planes, and other military vehicles. We pull funding for certain projects and people lose their jobs. Ike warned us about this, but we never took it seriously.

 

Even small town Nebraska isn't immune. There's a company in central Nebraska who does some amazing work for aerospace, but if they lose their military contracts I think they would go out of business, or cut quite a few jobs.

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

 

[BigRedBuster]

 

[GSG]

The two gas stations between home and work are both at $3.99/gal   

[JJ Husker]

On 7/28/2022 at 4:57 PM, JJ Husker said:

Gas $3.75 today, down another .64¢ in the last 8 days. Hopefully it keeps up this pace for another 2-3 weeks 

$3.65 this morning at Sam’s Club. Down another .10¢ in last 8 days. Sub $3.25 is not looking good…but better than $5.

[BigRedBuster]

43 minutes ago, JJ Husker said:

$3.65 this morning at Sam’s Club. Down another .10¢ in last 8 days. Sub $3.25 is not looking good…but better than $5.

$3.42 here.

[nic]

Political stunt by a bunch of economists?

 

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/schumer-calls-economists-wrong-who-cautioning-manchins-spending-bill-increase-inflation

 

"A few of the notable signers include Nobel laureate Vernon Smith, former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Kevin Hassett, former Director of the Office of Management and Budget Jim Miller and Robert Heller, former president of the Federal Reserve Board 1986-1989.

In addition, professors from the University of Chicago, Princeton University, Duke University, the University of Virginia, Columbia University and the University of Notre Dame, among others, were listed on the letter dated Aug. 3."

[Archy1221]

19 hours ago, nic said:

Political stunt by a bunch of economists?

 

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/schumer-calls-economists-wrong-who-cautioning-manchins-spending-bill-increase-inflation

 

"A few of the notable signers include Nobel laureate Vernon Smith, former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Kevin Hassett, former Director of the Office of Management and Budget Jim Miller and Robert Heller, former president of the Federal Reserve Board 1986-1989.

In addition, professors from the University of Chicago, Princeton University, Duke University, the University of Virginia, Columbia University and the University of Notre Dame, among others, were listed on the letter dated Aug. 3."

The economy really is in a weird stage.   I think it would be nice if Gov wouldn’t get too involved in trying to fix something and let the natural course keep going with what the Fed is doing.  Inflation is pretty bad and definitely affecting people’s everyday lives at this point, but companies haven’t seen a downturn in consumer spending big enough to cut jobs yet which is an awesome thing.   I’m hoping we ride this fine line until the supply chain is straightened out and we can get rates stabilized in the 4-5% range and business can then just hum along.  

[JJ Husker]

9 minutes ago, Archy1221 said:

The economy really is in a weird stage.   I think it would be nice if Gov wouldn’t get too involved in trying to fix something and let the natural course keep going with what the Fed is doing.  Inflation is pretty bad and definitely affecting people’s everyday lives at this point, but companies haven’t seen a downturn in consumer spending big enough to cut jobs yet which is an awesome thing.   I’m hoping we ride this fine line until the supply chain is straightened out and we can get rates stabilized in the 4-5% range and business can then just hum along.  

I agree with this. I still can’t figure out how interest rates remained so incredibly low for so long. 0% to 2% is just falsely propping up the economy, and it went on forever. Probably contributed to a harder landing when things went south.

[BigRedBuster]

4-5 years ago, we said we weren’t going to buy a car till the kids were out of college. Last one is graduating and our car had 160,000 miles. 
 

So, have gone car shopping now twice. Probably going to buy new for the first time in my life. 
 

not once have we been able to test drive the car we want to look at. They don’t know when they will get some. If we order one, there is still no guarantee we will get what we ordered.
 

So tired of this.