User_Name13 OP t1_iuix4vd wrote
Reply to comment by throwawaitnine in Editorial: Better bet: Despite turbulent Senate race, Oz better prepared to lead by User_Name13
Senators vote on spending bills, which greatly effects inflation.
Inflation is the number one concern for voters rn, and understandably so, it's fucking everything up.
It's a kitchen table issue.
dc122186 t1_iuixknm wrote
Inflation is currently being caused by companies jacking prices. Not much a senator can do about that.
throwawaitnine t1_iuiyliq wrote
>Inflation is currently being caused by companies jacking prices.
No its not. Inflation is being caused by supply chain woes, a war in Europe, very generous fiscal policy during Covid and mostly, overwhelmingly by a decade plus of ZIRP and QE. Corporates are raising prices because they have to.
dc122186 t1_iuizc22 wrote
Explain record profits then? They don't have to.
throwawaitnine t1_iuj2pk6 wrote
Who has record profits that you want me to explain?
dc122186 t1_iuj5lwg wrote
>...benefited from price increases and improved supplies to retailers.
>...this company moved forward, continuing to invest," Chief Executive Darren Woods told investors. Its quarterly profits "reflect that deep commitment" as well as higher prices, he added.
>“Pricing will need to continue when it comes to the remainder of this year and next year as we’re still in catch-up mode towards repairing and restoring our gross margin,”
>...shares climbed more than 11% to an all-time high on Monday after the company reported that first-quarter profits nearly doubled due to soaring U.S. meat prices.
throwawaitnine t1_iujwip9 wrote
The only company on this list that is recording record profits is XOM. Oil is a commodity and Exxon mobile does not control the price of that commodity. They are a publicly traded company with a legal fiduciary obligation to their shareholders, I am one btw, and they can't choose to sell their products below market price.
The rest of the companies you listed are all reporting earnings less than earlier this year or mid 2021. It might be hard to believe but at the beginning of this year the Fed was still buying securities.
weebeardedman t1_iuiz8qt wrote
Even so, wouldn't it be congress that would introduce new legislation/has the power to address issues?
BasileusLeoIII t1_iuizso1 wrote
cannot believe that people are unironically pushing this narrative
that companies have somehow gotten together and utterly beaten centuries of microeconomics, shifting the supply/ demand curve across the nation to raise the prices they charge for goods and services
No, inflation is currently being caused by the unprecedented and untenable amount of money the Federal Reserve is printing, or put more succinctly, the Money Supply
Absolutely reckless federal spending, and a skyrocketing deficit due to tax incomes not even approaching spending rates, are causing inflation, coupled with major supply chain issues
The dollars in your bank account are worth relatively less, because there are suddenly so many billions more of them in circulation
Dryheavemorning t1_iuj1pwa wrote
>Absolutely reckless federal spending, and a skyrocketing deficit due to tax incomes not even approaching spending rates
Japan spent comparable amounts on Covid stimulus and also runs a big deficit but doesn't have bad inflation at all.
TiberiusDrexelus t1_iuj23b1 wrote
...excuse me?
>Yen’s 24% Plunge Is Crisis Warning World Can’t Ignore
[deleted] t1_iuj3h5o wrote
[removed]
a-german-muffin t1_iujdyix wrote
>Since the late 1990s, a succession of governments favored a weak exchange rate to boost exports. Tokyo is now losing control over the yen as the Federal Reserve hikes rates.
It ain't just the last two years tanking the yen.
Sir-Jawn t1_iujgcls wrote
For fucks sake. You guys will believe anything to defy basic economics 101. If supply/demand doesn’t dictate prices, and companies can charge whatever they want like you claim, why weren’t we seeing high inflation pre-Covid?
It’s supply and demand. We are having supply issues while we simultaneously juiced demand through unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus. Any economist could have predicted this (and many did).
ZebZ t1_iujlj51 wrote
Businesses are using Covid and supply issues as cover to jack their prices. Those things weren't there before 2020 so they couldn't get away with it.
Pre-Covid, a widget cost $8 to make and sold for $10, thus giving a $2, or 20%, profit margin. Today, it may cost $11 to make the widget but now they can sell it for $15 and claim a $4, or 27%, profit. And just like they, they get to pocket an extra $2 per widget all while disingenuously blaming it entirely on being a supply issue.
Yes, there is a degree of legitimate inflation caused by policy and by supply issues. But that's only half the reason for the additional prices you pay.
It's not rocket science. It's right there in black and white in their quarterly reports that their profit margins are increasing.
Edit: maybe instead of reflexively downvoting because it challenges your myopic worldview, read about it from Bloomberg: US Corporate Profits Soar With Margins at Widest Since 1950
Sir-Jawn t1_iujtfkk wrote
When the market is willing to pay $15 for that widget, then that’s the market price. There is enough demand to sustain $15. If your theory were true, a company would swoop in, build widgets for $11, and sell them for $13-14 undercutting competition. Why aren’t competing companies doing that?
ZebZ t1_iujxxs3 wrote
They are raising prices accordingly, clearly. The new floor is set, why would they leave money in the table?
US Corporate Profits Soar With Margins at Widest Since 1950
> A measure of US profit margins has reached its widest since 1950, suggesting that the prices charged by businesses are outpacing their increased costs for production and labor.
> After-tax profits as a share of gross value added for non-financial corporations, a measure of aggregate profit margins, improved in the second quarter to 15.5% -- the most since 1950
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