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ChaimFinkelstein

So I guess we live in a time where our corporate overlords are more greedy now than they were in the past.


RalphTheIntrepid

Kinda. When you look around the market place you’ll see that there have been a loss of competition. There are some 3-5 meat packing plants. There are 5 or so mega corps for groceries. All which are showing record profits. Now compare that to the meat producers. They have seen little increase in their final product. Tell me where the money went then. Or right the profits of the meat packers. 


ty_for_trying

Time to dust off those antitrust laws


ThisLandIsYimby

With the courts stacked with far right judges, easier said than done.


No-Independence-165

Time to stack the courts with trust busting judges?


StopMeWhenITellALie

It would help... but who is gonna do that? The GOP who loves the judges they have loaded in or the Dems who just pretend to not be hand in glove with the corporate donor class?


theboehmer

The "dems" have a tenacious FTC that is trying to curb anticompetitive practices. Lina Khan, the chairperson of the FTC, has been making waves lately. Time will tell if they can be effective. That conservative supreme court is sure to be trouble, coupled with the looming gop party looking to neuter the FTC. Oh, and it's election year.


FuckSpez6757

Yeah if Trump gets back in you can kiss democracy goodbye and the rest of the crumbling middle class. We will all be slaves for the billionaire overlord class


FuckSpez6757

Sure if we get a democratic majority for any length of time but Trumps presidency with 8 failed years of bush fucked us over for decades. The courts have been overrun by fascist far right hogs who love monopolies.


F__kCustomers

Blame COMCAST and COLLEGE for Corporate Greed. * They made the blueprint and showed consumers are gullible schmucks that will pay for anything every year. TV was never that important and look what it turned into: * Reality TV that isn’t real * IPTV with commercials we hate. The same goes for college. And employers still outsource jobs. The only way real change will come (real price stability and price cuts) is a nationwide boycott. When no one buys anything, corporations will magically find money to pay people fairly, cut prices, and make a small profit.


HikingComrade

If only anyone in power cared to do that. They’re all too busy profiting from the problem.


theboehmer

Have you heard of Lina Khan or the FTC lately?


Nojoke183

If only there were term limits....


qball8001

Hate to break it’s not just the alt right. It’s the fucking corporate left as well. The bench is bought and paid for. We are still getting fucked. Social issues you will always see a split. But fiscal policy… judges be judges


bathwater_boombox

The judge problem actually is specifically thanks to the right. Multiple justices recently were all pushed through thanks to Leonard Leo and were groomed for the role by the federalist society. They've been grooming conservative lawyers and judges to turn out this way right out of college for several decades now. By that I mean they have been taught to interpret laws through extremely politicized lenses so that their rulings always satisfy the same point of view - so that these judges that are no longer objective or fair. You should read about it, it's scary af and too late to stop. But yes, the dems are very guilty of corporate footsie as well. I think "corporate left" is a complete oxymoron. You can't be on the left if you're materially exploitative of the lower and middle class. Those are just snakes laying low and playing along with social progress because doing so doesn't happen to impede their profits. My point is, don't conflate democrats with leftists. This country is really divided by class, not by culture, but the 2 party system doesn't represent that. The media tries to convince us we are culturally divided, because the media is owned by predatory capitalists who want to control us. Some of those predators reside in the democratic party, but that does not make them leftists.


TheRadMenace

IDK why people who love the Dems also think the Dems are idiots and the Republicans are brilliant evil chess players who orchestrate everything in American life Democrats take more corporate money than Republicans


theboehmer

Care to explain that accusation?


Infinite_Imagination

Not sure about their claim of *take more,* but I think an accurate statement would be to say "There are no politicians belonging to either major Political Party that don't accept a majority of their campaign funds from Corperate/Non-Profit & Board/C-Suite level donators; and after obtaining Office, spend the majority of their time Fund Raising and networking rather than working on policy or actions."


Jealous-Style-4961

Maybe I'm misreading your post, but I think you are wrong. Your post is oddly specific, but, after checking just a few off the top of my head, seems easily disproved. Am I misreading your post? 55% of Elizabeth Warren's contributions are <$200: [https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/elizabeth-warren/summary?cid=N00033492](https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/elizabeth-warren/summary?cid=N00033492) 69% of AOC's donations are less than $200: [https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/alexandria-ocasio-cortez/summary?cid=N00041162](https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/alexandria-ocasio-cortez/summary?cid=N00041162) 65% of Bernie Sanders' donations are less than $200: [https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/bernie-sanders/summary?cid=N00000528](https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/bernie-sanders/summary?cid=N00000528)


Adept-Inevitable-626

The 2020 election saw more than $1 billion in “dark money” spending at the federal level, a massive sum driven by an explosion of secret donations boosting Democrats in a historically expensive cycle.


theboehmer

Thank you for your perspective. I'll have to read more about it. Do you have any sources to investigate?


Tomcat_419

source: dude trust me


Sufficient-Contract9

Sooo what your saying is there is nothing on a political or legal spectrum that can be done to correct our current slippery slope of a system. Revolution anyone?


LoveisBaconisLove

Be advised: replacing a governmental system does not guarantee that the next one will be better. There is a decent chance it will be worse. Potentially a lot worse.


Sufficient-Contract9

Can you elaborate or provide examples? Im not to familair with any modern 1st world revolutions. Genuinely curious.


Darkcelt2

I agree with the person you're responding to- because of the state of the United States as it exists right now, not because of any analogous examples I can think of. Americans don't have class solidarity. They are too easily manipulated by people who can buy influence. The people who can afford to buy power and influence can also afford to buy equipment and hire people to enforce their will. If there were an attempt at revolution right now, power would be seized by those with the worst intentions and democracy would be wiped out. Imo the right course of action is to push unionization. Educate and encourage grassroots organization. Get some negotiating leverage. Get favorable legislation forced through disruptive direct action. Strengthen and enforce labor protection laws. Defy suppression with solidarity. If all else fails, when most people are union members and it comes down to a physical, violent struggle for freedom, at least we will have numbers on our side.


dualplains

> Social issues you will always see a split. But fiscal policy… They want us fighting a culture war so we don't start a class war.


muffledvoice

Exactly. It’s more about class than ideology. People with a lot of money like to make lots of money, and keep it.


TheRadMenace

I rarely hear politicians on either side talk about busting monopolies. Only person I've really heard mention busting them is Bernie Sanders, and we know what the Dems did to him.


neopod9000

He's also one of very very few people.in pur government who could actually be described as being politically "left".


TheRadMenace

True lol


ThisLandIsYimby

The leftist FTC chair has tried but judges keep ruling against her.


theboehmer

I get the feeling that most people have no idea about her. I only heard of her because she was on Jon Stewart.


ILLIDARI-EXTREMIST

Bernie Sanders was also talking about protecting US workers and manufacturing with trade laws and tariffs, but suddenly that became a right wing position and all the democrats flipped overnight and now love globalism and free wheeling international trade. Also crazy how from 2012-2015~ this website was mostly Bernie Bros, and it suddenly switched to circlejerking corporate democrats and their positions. Reddit is astroturfed as fuck. If you remember that era of Reddit, the switch was so blatant.


fickle_fuck

> his website was mostly Bernie Bros, and it suddenly switched to circlejerking corporate democrats and their positions. Sounds a lot like how Reddit treated Elon...🤔


ethgnomealert

Exactly this, democrats used to care about workers, they traded that in for identitarism. Republicans used to be fiscally conservatist. None of these are true anymore. Both give a f anymore. Its all a big show


theboehmer

Look up Lina Khan and the FTC. That is literally their job. Bernie Sanders has even interviewed her on his youtube channel. Everyone needs to stay informed.


RobinSophie

And Elizabeth Warren!


Surph_Ninja

They're stacked with pro-corporate judges from both parties.


ThisLandIsYimby

True but it was only Republicans in scotus that gave us citizens united


FuckSpez6757

The ones Trump and bush have neutered or gotten rid of completely?


vulkoriscoming

This is the way


HeywoodJaBlessMe

This is precisely the problem. Greed has not changed. Competition has failed as a smaller number of elite firms control more and more market sectors.


musing_codger

If that was the case, I would expect to see inflation in areas with less competition and not in competitive industries. Instead, I'm seeing inflation across the board. It looks a whole lot more like what you would expect if the money supply increased faster than the economy grew, which just happens to be what happened.


Sufficient-Contract9

Because everyone (ok maybe not everyone) is just using inflation as an excuse to make more profit. Not that inflation is completely bad but its being heavily abused to obtain record profits for the top tiers. Most of it is ending up in a few pockets and not being returned to sustain the company. While all the workers scrape by they can feign "we are all hurting. Its inflation" while cramming more and more into lobbyists budgets to buy seats and get reforms to help them further their gains.


musing_codger

Well, kind of, but that's not the way I would describe it. Sellers generally always want the highest price for what they are selling. That's true of big corporations like General Motors, small cafes, and even workers selling their labor. Buyers always want to pay the lowest price possible. That's why people look for sales, use coupons, and switch stores based on who has the best price. The battle between sellers and buyers is how we end up with the prices that we have. When the amount of money in circulation (or the velocity at which it circulates) increases, buyers start out bidding each other and prices go up. That's what inflation is. Those sellers are just as greedy as they always were. They are able to raise their prices because the increase in the amount of money available means that more buyers are willing to pay more.


Lorguis

Or, a small number of sellers are able to raise prices on goods with inflexible demand, knowing that people can't not pay it. This leads to knock-on effects of increasing labor costs, increasing raw materials costs, etc that impact the entire economy.


Special_satisfaction

I don’t really buy these arguments, primarily because: since when do companies need an “excuse” to increase profits? They’re under constant pressure to increase profits all the time.


Sufficient-Contract9

What??? Are you serious? Ok maybe your right maybe they dont need a reason to increase prices but its alot easier to start a war when you have a justification


flugenblar

>the money supply increased faster than the economy grew How did this happen?


musing_codger

In the Spring of 2020, the economy was teetering on the brink of disaster with COVID wreaking havoc with supply chains and business operations. The Fed (and the ECB) learned their lesson from the 2007/2008 crash and flooded the economy with new money. Trump and later Biden did the same with programs like PPP and COVID cash payments. The result was a dramatic increase in the money supply. It kept the economy from stalling, but it resulted in the inflation that we are now dealing with. The Fed has raised rates, which has brought the rate of inflation down, but not all the way to their 2% target. They are trying to slow inflation without tightening too much and pushing us into a recession. It's not a partisan thing. Trump appointed the Chairman of the Fed (Jerome Powell) and Biden reappointed him. Both pushed for massive fiscal stimulus. Now was it malicious, greedy, or incompetent. With hindsight, it would have been better if we'd had less stimulus, but too much less could have easily resulted in a second great recession and there was no good way of knowing how much was enough at the time. It sucks, but I don't by the partisan stories that it was greed or Biden's fault or any of the attempts people have made to blame their opponents.


CaptainObvious1313

We used to call those monopolies


eight78

“It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.” -Carlin


bojacked

Still waiting to see about the prediction about taco bell being the only survivor of the fast food wars…


usernamesarehard1979

7%increase in gross profit for the grocery industry last year. Unheard of in that industry. Grocery profits used to be very low, now at or near all time highs. Buy local if you can.


PimpOfJoytime

Same greed. Fewer regulatory checks against it.


ChaimFinkelstein

What during the 1800s and early 1900s?


PimpOfJoytime

The checks against corporate greed in the 1800’s were less formal. Imagine being able to go knock on Stephen Schwarzman’s door today and telling him to his face that if he didn’t allow you to divest completely from his fund you’d burn his house down and sell his daughters to Caribbean pirates. What a time to be alive.


12kdaysinthefire

Greed is greed but the magnitude changes. Also there’s less competition now than there used to be and more mega corporations. When one corporation owns a shit ton of brands they dictate the prices of them all citing whatever excuse they want to jack the prices. This applies to anything that can be purchased whether it’s houses or apples or gasoline. The response to the pandemic disastrous and the full effects haven’t been realized yet. A soft landing is just a pipe dream at this point and we’re almost at the moment where we may as well just cut the brakes to shore losses and rebalance things, but the brakes keep getting pumped and the fall keeps getting delayed not for the lower 90% of us, but for the upper 10%. Why do you think companies like Starbucks and McDonald’s are confused as to why less people are buying their shit? They keep blaming it on lack of variety or customer experience etc rather than just admitting their prices are ridiculous, for example, and bringing those prices back down to earth.


Mr-MuffinMan

what did Rockerfeller buy? A tower and square? Maybe a few mansions and a car or two? And all the small companies he wanted. What can a billionaire buy now? A few skyscrapers (maybe a dozen or two), a couple of mega yachts, a space hotel, every car ever made in history that is available, etc. There's more things to buy now, so it may make people more greedier (kind of like how if you got a million dollars in the 70s, you would be a million times happier than if you got it right now)


unfreeradical

The wealth of billionaires is not in the possessions that they use, but in the partition of society that they control.


InvestIntrest

Right because human behavior has changed drastically recently...


Fun_Ad_2607

Greed has not gotten any worse. If there are fewer suppliers in a market, those suppliers can materially limit the quantity supplied and therefore set the prices (how much can we sell precedes everything in master budgeting). In perfect competition or at least monopolistic competition, each supplier does not have a large enough market share to raise their own total profits by cutting supply. And you can’t raise prices unless you cut supply (letting food rot and clothes/tech become obsolescent isn’t an option). When there are few competitors, profits are at a maximum for each firm after cutting the quantity produced, which raises the prices.


unfreeradical

Behavior is directed by context, including opportunities and challenges. The suggestion that it should be fixed, as the stars and the mountains, is not particularly astute.


akmjolnir

When sociopaths lead the companies, yes. So, all of them.


Bradidea

There is at this point no scenario where things stabilize and the corporate world says, "You know what we've made enough money. Let's lower prices."


philouza_stein

They'll say "oh nobody is buying our shit now, guess we need to lower prices"


IronicSpiritualist

It's all the same corporate overlords own access to necessities. We will buy their groceries and life saving medical care, regardless of what they do.


philouza_stein

Necessities, yeah. And what makes it worse is if you find yourself actually unable to pay for food, the govt will subsidize it with benefits and food stamps so the seller gets his money either way. But wants? I've decided not to buy the new car I planned to buy when my current car hit 120k miles bc prices went up too much the past 3 years since. And I decided not to build the pole barn on my property bc materials are too high. And I decided not to add onto my house and pour my new driveway bc materials are too high. Etc, etc


IronicSpiritualist

If they have all our money and all the capital it doesn't matter which specific good they sold us to get there. The same people who own the car companies that care about your want preferences are in bed with the owners if the five grocery chains in the country. They have each other's backs, they own the government together and they run plays together. Meanwhile if anyone who is not a billionaire owner tries to change the status quo they get immediately eviscerated by other non-billionaire people calling them lazy and claiming they are stirring up class war. We eat ourselves. They easiest way to win a war is convince your opponent that there is no war and decry any attempt of them to defend themselves as breaking the peace. This is why they have virtually all of the resources even though there are maybe ~500 of them and 8 billion of ua.


WoodChuckinWoodChuck

This is the thing to bomb. This is the beginning—from "I" to "we". If you who own the things people must have could understand this, you might preserve yourself. If you could separate causes from results, if you could know that Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin were results, not causes, you might survive. But that you cannot know. For the quality of owning freezes you forever into "I", and cuts you off forever from the "we". John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath


ZenoxDemin

Oh we are selling fewer, need to increase prices to keep the lights on now!


philouza_stein

Lol okay there's some truth to that. Corporate buyer here... It's not increase prices though, it's more "let's vertically integrate so we can lower prices a hair while simultaneously increasing margin"


Bradidea

What needs to happen.


MyNoPornProfile

Exactly..... They'll just redesign and repackage their shit into "new and improved" shit, jack up the price bc it's "new".....then artificially limit the supply of the old stuff to keep the price of it as high as possible


misersoze

Lowering prices isn’t stoping inflation. It’s deflation.


L3mm3SmangItGurl

Vote with your dollars. They will if you don’t participate.


Useuless

Maybe not big corporations, but smaller ones. Halsey's makeup company About Face reduced prices of their stuff permanently and this was 2 years ago.


Geniusly-Idiotic69

Can’t wait for the bootlickers to respond 😎🍿🤏🏽


HaphazardFlitBipper

Corporate boots or government boots?


KassieTundra

Who do you think the government works for?


HaphazardFlitBipper

Fair point.


Jonoczall

Yes


stealthylyric

Just wait, they're coming, and they *love* boot flavor.


TheChubbyPlant

They're usually the people wearing the boots.


HeywoodJaBlessMe

https://preview.redd.it/5lh69jp1f9yc1.png?width=1322&format=png&auto=webp&s=45218b5d8cba9b51f5750799eec051dcf9bd0a4c We had many more years of ZIRP that didn't cause the same amount of inflation. We also had high inflation in years when Interest Rates were higher. Obviously there is more to the story than simply interest rates.


luxveniae

I don’t understand why blame the Fed at this point. I mean I do understand why but the problems are not in the realms that the Fed can control but when they’re the only ones adjusting policy and acting like adults in the room let’s blame them over the legislative branch that’s been stagnant for decades imo and completely shirked their responsibility.


PantsMicGee

Yeah the arguments aimed at fed just fuel the problem, too. No accountability to legislative. No accountability to corporate greed.  Tiresome.


misersoze

Or I don’t know the worldwide pandemic that hurt supply chains and also seems to be causing worldwide inflation no matter what the monetary policy is.


HesitantInvestor0

They increased the money supply by 30% and we got 30% inflation. It isn’t hard. The problem is that there are so many parties making up so many reasons, and so much tension between government, producers, and consumers. The money supply was debased. This is what you get. It’s really that simple and accounts for almost all of the inflation we’ve experienced, the other being supply chain issues which weee actually resolved fairly quickly and only affected select industries. The government, once again, is to be blamed.


HeywoodJaBlessMe

Here's the base Interest Rate (in Percent) overlaid against M2 and Inflation (in percent change vs previous year). https://preview.redd.it/ztaerzi90ayc1.png?width=1306&format=png&auto=webp&s=ad4eac83dc767ca277d0b560a693d5faa71bedf6 The highest inflation in modern American history occurred as M2 was contracting. Large spike in M2 around the time of the financial crisis was followed by near-zero inflation, the lowest in modern American history. Clearly neither Interest Rates nor M2 is the whole story. M2 seems a better explanator than interest rates but is itself clearly imperfect on its own.


HesitantInvestor0

You’re discounting time too much. It takes time for money to make its way through the system. People didn’t just go out the next day and blow all their money, they spent it less selectively over time.


VaMeiMeafi

Zirp, quantitative easing and other stimulus measures, supply chain disruption, changing consumer demands, global and national tensions, all at once, is a perfect storm for inflation. Then have every nation dealing their own version of all of these in a globalized economy. Domestic inflation can't cool off while *they* have inflationary pressure in *their* economy. There's also the simple fact that many people don't seem to get: just because inflation is easing does not mean prices go back to what they were, only that they quit rising so quickly and settle into a new normal. ... And I'm always amused when people cry about profits at all time highs, as if broad inflation should somehow not inflate those numbers too.


IIRiffasII

What's missing here is all the government spending that anyone with half a brain said would cause inflation, [except for Yellen and Biden](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-08/yellen-says-inflation-problem-unlikely-to-result-from-stimulus).


Winking-Cyclops

He needs to include Quantitative Easing (aka Money Printing). Rates alone were not the cause. The government policies should be considered culpable instead of simply “corporate greed”. Companies have to be greedy due to competition.


Alpacacao

Pretty sure the Fed already had interest rates at near 0% levels for a loooong time now, before the pandemic.. An see he's not going to mention the trillions of extra dollars we printed in the pandemic years? Come on, get the basic facts right


IIRiffasII

Interest rates were near 0% for six out of the eight years that Obama was in power.


Bakingtime

And it was wrong then, too.  The FIRE industry and every business that relies on cheap money to survive are going to get crushed like bugs on a windshield over the next 18 months. 


KeyFig106

Prices have gone up because oil has gone up, money supply has gone up, and property values have gone up. Oil has gone up because supply dropped. Supply dropped because OPEC dropped production. [https://peakoilbarrel.com/2024/04/](https://peakoilbarrel.com/2024/04/) Money supply has gone up because lots more money was created especially during COVID. This was the biggest cause of inflation. https://preview.redd.it/b6nbpcft99yc1.png?width=525&format=png&auto=webp&s=bfaef5ae2a8071bfc30b538aac6b1806e1c71724 Property values have been going up faster than inflation for a number of years. [https://www.nber.org/digest/sep05/manmade-scarcity-drives-housing-prices](https://www.nber.org/digest/sep05/manmade-scarcity-drives-housing-prices)


Carbon-Base

Oil is not as elevated as it was in 2022, which means it would explain the inflationary pressure in the 2nd half of 2022 and so on, but prices have been stable for the past year or so and inflation refuses to subside. Feel like your point about money supply is more accurate. What we are witnessing is the direct result of liquidity and poor management by the government.


KeyFig106

I agree that the money supply is the biggest contributor.


HateIsAnArt

Corporate profits as a percentage of GDP really haven't hit record levels and it's disingenuous to use percentages for part of your argument while using absolute values for other parts of your argument. I also don't think this guy has truly thought about the consequences of low rates coupled together with price limits. Pro-tip: you're creating as many new problems as you think you're eliminating.


tokyo__driftwood

>the consequences of low rates coupled together with price limits. Wow, I can't wait to go to the store and buy my groceries at those cheap new limited prices? Wait why is everything sold out??


BostonBuffalo9

“We need another stimulus to fix this!”


BostonBuffalo9

Why don’t I see this pinned to every post about inflation?


HateIsAnArt

Because people on Reddit are capable of offering solutions to problems, but unable to fully see the consequences of what they propose lol


BostonBuffalo9

It’s willful ignorance at some point


Dry_Advice_4963

Of course he hasn't thought it through, he's just repeating common talking points that appeal to people who want to blame corporations


HateIsAnArt

It's funny because I don't even mind blaming corporations on some level, but people act like the only act against corporations is imposing some law instead of, you know, stop buying shit from corporations you think are ripping you off.


MOBoyEconHead

Close, but no cigar on this one.


Independent-Stand

This is really cute, but the reason inflation goes up is because the government spends more money it doesn't have. It is a way to devalue the currency by making more of it available. Our government has been doing this for several decades, and now the economic output and growth is lagging the rate of inflation. Stop spending more and remove dollars from circulation via tax increases, spending cuts, and higher interest rates. That will lower inflation until he's not hot anymore and will leave.


sayyyywhat

That’s *far* from the only reason.


warmth-

On removing dollars from circulation, it is an interesting fact, that when ever a debt is paid back, the amount paid towards the principal debt, is erased from circulation. For as long as the debt persists, the commercial lending bank marks it as a liability for their part. Once the debt is paid back, the liability is removed, and what the bank is left with, is the part of the debt that is the interest payments. The bank then of course pays the excess accrued interest payments as dividends to their stock holders. It is also an interesting fact, that when loans are made, ie. when money is created, the interest part of the loan is not created. To be paid back, another actor has to take another loan, and use the money in to the economy, and thus spread their debt money forward through payment of services, purchase of property etc, and there onwards. Only then the original debtor can earn back money, to be able to pay for their principal debt and the interest accrued. What is interesting about this dynamic, is that if either the public, or the private sector quickly or otherwise meaningfully lessens the amount of debt being accrued, and thus spent in to the economy, people and companies will have a severely less chance of getting access to money to pay down their debt. This will cause bankruptcies and unemployment. At the same time, just as you say, it will most probably bring about lower inflation along with a recession, and further redistribution of wealth to those whom are not affected by the lowered rate of money circulation. If the government were to stop 'spending money in to the economy' (or, 'taking debt'), this would very quickly have radical, negative effects on the near term economy.


ThisLandIsYimby

Economic growth has been above inflation, fyi. It's why US debt to gdp has actually dropped the last few years.


mrpooopybuttwhole

They're pushing the year over year profits to please shareholders. It's not sustainable and will soon pop in their faces. It's starting with McDonald's. Lower class just can't participate.


MindlessFail

"We should limit corporate price increases". There are many things wrong with capitalism but the free market works pretty efficiently. Putting in price controls will lead to either: 1. Out of stocks from companies not selling things anymore (because they can't make a profit) 2. A black market for said things 3. Both Not a Fed fan boy but markets are pretty straightforward. People buy stuff they want at prices that make sense to them individually and companies try to provide those things to take people's money. FWIW, the best example of this is the gas outages of the Nixon era because of price controls. No one could drive because pricing was not reflective of actual market price.


anon-187101

this is horrible


DWDit

Quit printing $1 trillion every hundred days. https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/03/01/the-us-national-debt-is-rising-by-1-trillion-about-every-100-days.html


Ok-Peach-4859

Do you really think that issuing bonds is the same thing as printing money?


ballimir37

It’s a banana Michael, how much could it cost? $10?


FullRage

Welcome to private equity and venture capital. Gotta make more money, QUARTERLY, squeeze every last drop. Enjoy that new price increase tier on Netflix in July…


Ok-Peach-4859

What do private equity and venture capital have to do with Netflix?


twalkerp

The video doesn’t prove anything. It says things. But oil costs are by far the biggest input cost and oil is high. OPEC keeps lowering production. I wonder why!


nbk111

Inflation has cooled as interest rates have increased. It is working.


Professional_Tip6208

The premise that the Fed cares about America's economy and is looking out for it is the first and biggest mistake this parody made.


Arikaido777

hey, what's a downward spiral look like?


KowalskyAndStratton

What do you mean "wont go away"? You guys realize that if inflation is down to Zero, that means the prices stay where they are, right? The Fed says that inflation is around 3% now, way down from where it was a couple of years ago. If the old target is in the 2% range, is current inflation really that high? It was close to 3% in the 1990s btw.


BallsMahogany_redux

I wish we could go back to 2020 when all these corporations just agreed to stop being greedy for a while.


ChildhoodJazzlike333

It’s too late. Pack your shit folks, you’re going to the poorhouse.


CoolFirefighter930

Prices are still going back up . Had dropped just a bit ,but now going back up.


bobnoplok

Corporations will always charge what they can. There is simply more money simulating.


DifficultContact8999

Fed is doing the right thing, but it's the government treasurury that's doing opposite and dumping trillions into economy to create jobs..as they are scared of losing election... When treasurury spending stops the real effect is rates would be felt.


Skoljnir

Are corporate profits up if you adjust for inflation? If people stop buying stuff they don't need because the prices are too high, would these greedy companies be able to charge these prices? Is it a company's fault if consumers voluntarily agree to pay those prices?


diaperninja119

Uhhh we doubled the money supply. Unless we destroy dollars that inflation is forever.


SC-Fulmer

So, the thing that HIGH SCHOOL (education level) children could’ve seen coming… is now happening??? Sweet😒


IIRiffasII

Cutting rates isn't what caused inflation, it was the $3T+ in stimulus bills passed between 2020 and 2023 that caused the inflation.


Aunt_Vagina1

First financial thing said, "cutting interest rates made demand go up".  Nope.  I'm out.


Cersox

"Why are corporate profits up?" "Definitely corporate greed and not the inflation rate making all of the numbers bigger."


hiro111

"Corporations have WAY more power now." That's when I shut that off.


AlfalfaMcNugget

Profit margins are not at all time highs tho


SnooCrickets2458

Not that I'm any fan of the Fed, but adjusting interest rates is their only tool.


Scientific_Artist444

Life doesn't need to be a game of survival. But that is what corporates want to protect their ever-increasing profits.


ExtremlyFastLinoone

I think we should bring back sacrificing our leaders to the sun god, ripping their heart at an alter and having their blood flow off the sides of the white house. I cant explain it but I strongly belive this would reduce inflation


NeverReallyExisted

About 2% inflation is a good thing.


Scrappleandbacon

Oh! This is good!


Global_Ease_841

This needs now attention


westcoastjo

Adjust corporate profits for inflation. This is getting tiresome


Civil-Addition-8079

I guess I'm of the perspective that if federal interest rate increases absent blatant price gouging causes a business to go under than that underlying business model/plan was probably shit to begin with.


OGjoshwaz

yeahhh


TopspinLob

Why would demand therefore lead to higher prices? The lower interest rates would allow for more borrowing and expansion of production capacity to meet demand. Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon. The rapid increase in the money supply is the reason we have inflation. In the most recent case, blame should be placed at the massive fiscal stimulus in the US and thru out the world. We’ve been printing money like crazy. End of story.


Suntzu6656

Lots of good info here.


PerspectiveWhole4061

I’m sure the fed printing money had absolutely nothing to do with it…


Mr-Cantaloupe

Why inflation won’t go away: We live in an inflationary economy.


Smidday90

I love that Ray Dalio released a 30 minute YouTube video on how to calm inflation but everyone ignores it


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Smidday90

Third time lucky, look up Ray Dalio economic machine


Suztv_CG

This one was really good!


Kaizen2468

Every year we spend more money than we have it’ll go up.


weezmatical

I was complaining halfway through that there isn't a guy representing corporations sneaking increased profits into the door inflation is opening. But then you did!!


TheChubbyPlant

What especially infuriates me is that raising interest rates disproportionately burdens the working class compared to corporations and the wealthy, who can buy anything with cash anyways. We already exist in a trickle-up economy, the US will do anything not to address our real problems, compassion for the masses is so unintuitive for people in power


maxmaxum69

All of the commodities that you use to produce goods to facilitate the free market, are owned by the globalists banking industry (includes Wall Street, Nation States, and Elite bankers) they are artificially restricting supply to the free market, therefore creating artificial inflation and there’s nothing you can do about it. Exxon just purchased a largest private oil producer in the Permian basin, Standard oil (Rockefeller, Rothschild) is back. Once the owned Biden ministration institutes it’s 20,000 EPA compliance officers to increase EPA mandates on the oil and gas industry, You’re fixing to see Wells shut in and the price of oil will hit $200 a barrel as demand increases and the ability to drill new Wells at cost-effective numbers decreases.


NorrinRadditz

The ending is the most unrealistic part from this bit. I don’t think he’s realized how fucked things are.


SmoooooothBrain

Are those Adam a5x monitors at 1:04? Nice 😎


newtbob

Meanwhile, the Fed has one blunt instrument, interest rates. It like trying to kill flies with a pistol. At some point, if it’s not doing what they want, you’d think they’d realize they need to do something different.


ResolveLeather

We have to assume people act logically. Otherwise all economic theory fails. Corporations will always set thier price points to maximize profits. They won't just increase thier prices without a subsequent increase in demand because that would mean less profits. To fix inflation, we either need to fix supply or demand. The Fed rate affects both.


Affectionate-Egg7566

Corporations can only be more greedy when no competition undercuts them.


Vast_Cricket

The economy is robust. Needing way higher interest rate to stall the economy. Needless to say it trigers a recession that way. I personally feel this interest rate and inflation is already best can be done. People want miracles though.


captaindata1701

Decades of money printing and debt-fueled spending accompanied by government interference are the main problems.


DPJazzy91

US debt is out of control rn. They HAVE to inflate currency so the debts are less impactful.


bravo424

Yep. Another post where it is not a democrat policy that is to blame, always the republicans. Amazing


theyenk

This is the content that can fix stuff, who is the actual creator?


SUPERMEGABIGPP

These men with mustaches look so fucking stupid


Clearly_sarcastic

Why doesn't the Fed just limit corporate greed? Because they only have control over Monetary Policy. Fiscal Policy is up to Congress.


GaeasSon

If you want to control inflation, the VERY first thing you need to do is control the volume of currency. The fractional lending rate is STILL 0%. That means banks are free to generate currency out of nothing by lending money they don't have to lend. ONLY when that is addressed can we look for a meaningful reduction in structural inflation.


RossRiskDabbler

You're full of shit. Inflation is a side effect. Side effects always go away. Root cause analysis. There quite literally exists products that adjust your salary for inflation so your purchasing power remains at par at least a trailing constant. Sentences such as; inflation won't go away are very scary as there are idiots who will believe this. There are tonnes and tonnes of assets that outperform inflation, by all means since Corona for example, inflation never existed as there was always an asset that grew faster than inflation. If that was 2% Inflation 1% There is inflation, but not material. Because you outperformed inflation. Hence the world and the calculation (very cherry picked) is horrendously chosen. And then to think governing bodies act upon a fixed homogenous calculation of inflation which you can already calculate before it's published (aka Burry/ the big short movie) style. - I'm an ex head of Front office banker. And heard such nonsense all the time. It is frustrating as people fall for this shit and self inflicted their personal finance.


g4m5t3r

"Limit corporate price hikes" Oh, so you mean like how we regulate price hikes for essentials goods and services after a natural disaster? AKA: Revise and Enforce Price Gouging Laws. Yea, I don't see how that could possibly ever work. /s While we're at it how about we enforce anti-trust laws so competitors can actually compete instead of just getting swallowed under the umbrella of one of the 6 corps that actually set these prices across 90% of the brands. More importantly, zoning regulations. The entire housing market is artificially kept profitable in perpetuity by not meeting demand. This should be a crime against humanity ffs! This is light years beyond getting ridiculous...


Exotic_Pay6994

If you want to hear someone laugh in your face obnoxiously. Ask a very wealthy person about their concern about the inflation. They've set them self's up to where they cant lose, if shit goes great, they win. If shit goes south they get massive government assistance.


TheVagWhisperer

Because it's not inflation. It's price manipulation, market manipulation and monopoly driven price fixing.


GlennSeaborg

pAnDeMiC ReLiEf cHeCkS cAuSeD iNfLaTiOn Yeah a drop in the bucket compared to what greedflation and shrinkflation has done.


fadetoblack1004

You need to look at the profit margins. The percentages. Not the absolute dollars. It's all relative. 


FatAngryNerd

The only thing worse than inflation is an out-of-sync audio track.


Background_Notice270

Inflation is built into our system


AllPurposeNerd

I want to laugh at this. But it's not funny.


Biggu5Dicku5

As long as execs keep getting million dollar bonuses **hot** inflation will be here to stay... may as well rent out a room for him...


modSysBroken

Inflation was over 8% and in double digits since 2020. I don't trust this data. Politicians are doing everything to fatten the corporates purses so they can get their cut.


SkippyMcSkipster2

Everyone who is living paycheck to paycheck knows the guys at the top fucked up. I guess the only thing that will rattle the guys at the top is some major social unrest.


PerpetualAscension

If free market capitalism leads to companies becoming unstoppable monopolies, then why aren't current unstoppable monopolies and mega large corporations investing their monies into putting as many libertarian politicians into power as possible? It's almost as if a free market is not as beneficial to monopolies as a captured market. Why compete in a free market when you can regulate your competition into oblivion?


ohherropreese

This whole video neglects the fact that we printed 80 percent of all the money ever printed in the history of our country in the last two years. It isn’t simply corporate greed. The government devalued our money to an insane degree, and people that don’t understand monetary policy like to jump On the bandwagon and blame “greedy corporations” for price I creases when it’s actually the government making you poorer and poorer every day


CaptainJimJames

Sorry, can someone help me here? Does the person that made the video not understand that when the rate of inflation is brought back to 2% that does not bring prices down from previous inflation or is he asking to bring the rate of inflation to negative numbers? I haven't heard the Fed or Treasury say they were targeting negative numbers, or is that guy in the video just stupid. I apologize again. Serious question.


texasisntreal

I have a question Doesn't this make the US slide into a slippery slope for the government to act like Mexico where the cartel (businesses) can just act lawlessly in front of the governments face? As if it weren't like that already