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Corporate profits account for almost half the increase in Europe’s inflation
351–360 of 476 posts
Re: Corporate profits account for almost half the increase in Europe’s inflation
#352Earlier quoted context omitted.
Going to add a slightly devil's advocate view here. I used to be the conference directory for a college club sport (specifically, paintball). Part of my job was to find paintball fields to host college events. It's important at to say that the organization that funded these events was 501(c)(3) aka "non-profit" and we therefore were trying to minimize costs. Something we ran into was this scenario: - Fields knew we w…
In labor economics, they refer to that slightly higher price (compared to the minimum clearing price) as an "efficiency wage" - it describes the same thing you describe above. Only note that this is a profit maximizing behavior - as companies pay out efficiency wages to avoid turnover costs or an unproductive workforce. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficiency_wage https://www.investopedia.com/efficiency-wages-520675…
I had never heard this term before so thanks for sharing!
Re: Corporate profits account for almost half the increase in Europe’s inflation
#353Earlier quoted context omitted.
Greedflation frames the problem around greed. Greed is not the problem. Lack of competition is the problem. Robber barons are the problem. Citizens united legalizing bribery is the problem. Ultimately it is deeper than that. Laborers don't know how to exercise power and laborers don't know how to provide consequences when our aristocracy takes advantage of us. If banks can say "we'll trash the economy if you don't ba…
> Ultimately it is deeper than that. Laborers don't know how to exercise power and laborers don't know how to provide consequences when our aristocracy takes advantage of us. It's deeper than that even still! You've got half the labor pool fighting against the one thing that would give them power: Unions. And they don't want consequences against the aristocracy because they have this delusional notion that one day th…
> one thing
There are also guillotines. It never ceases to amaze me that pro gun rights people are generally anti union. Both are extra judicial exercises of power to get a seat at the negotiating table and ultimately prevent tyranny against ones self. Both involve seeking justice through use of force when justice is no where to be found.
> And they don't want consequences against the aristocracy because they have this delusional notion that one day they'll be a part of said aristocracy.
This is over simplified and echo chamber talk. This would not survive a conversation with a skeptic. Those people wouldn't say that they are anti-union because they might eventually be a business owner. They would say that one of the authorities they trust said unions are corrupt and won't work, ignoring the business owners corruption who paid for that authority to sell that story. Conservationism frequently lies with the truth. Only through understanding the bigger picture can you understand that the framing of a given truth creates a lie in the context of a bigger picture.
They have been lied to about cause and effect by entities like fox news and don't have the critical thinking skills to question it. People who believe in trickle down economics don't believe it because they think they will be able to trickle down onto others in the future, they believe it because someone they held in a position of authority told them it's an optimal economic system and they didn't think about it too much or question it.
If you build a culture around following authority and not questioning it too much (like church) then it's easy to hoodwink those people because they are used to trusting [their] authorities without question.
Re: Corporate profits account for almost half the increase in Europe’s inflation
#354Corporations were all willingly taking less than the maximum profit they could before and coincidentally when interest rates go to zero and governments provide unprecedented financial support to citizens all the companies decide to get greedy. I'm more than a bit skeptical of this narrative.
Re: Corporate profits account for almost half the increase in Europe’s inflation
#355Earlier quoted context omitted.
Competition doesn't work correctly in modern economies because companies are allowed to buy their competitors. If you start competing with another company, they can essentially raise money to buy you and stop what would be the "normal" process. As a result, all theories that people have about how competition works don't apply as they think it should.
That can only go on for so long; if people see companies buying out competitors people will jump to create more and more competitors for the easy exit.
What are some examples of this occurring?
Re: Corporate profits account for almost half the increase in Europe’s inflation
#356psssst. is anyone gonna tell the IMF that, actually, money printing accounts for 100% of Europe's inflation?
Re: Corporate profits account for almost half the increase in Europe’s inflation
#357Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd argue that there always must be something else at play in addition to greed. Greed is a given and the driver of the economy. Companies don't suddenly decide that maybe they should increase profits. So it's imperative to understand why they were able to increase profit margins without competition taking their market share. IMO that tells us what intervention is needed. The ideal market is companies at a constant k…
I'd argue that there doesn't have to be any secret reason. You say that greed "is a given" as an argument that there must be something mysterious going on, but raising prices when you can get away with it is no less a given. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36483676
The mystery is why you can get away with it. Bezos famously said "your margin is my opportunity". Why is there no Jeffrey Bezos waiting to pounce on the opportunity?
Re: Corporate profits account for almost half the increase in Europe’s inflation
#358Earlier quoted context omitted.
>… when he suggested workers shouldn’t ask for big wage increases… How is that not directly telling workers to not ask for wage increases? I’d also say adding the word “chastising” is changing the tone of what the original commentor and I were referencing when talking about governments asking workers to not ask for wage increases.
The author is doing a lot of heavy lifting with the word "suggesting". I can't find any quote that suggests he is actually saying workers shouldn't ask for raises. Here's the closest I could find: "To do that I have to be clear – and we expect inflation to come down this year – to do that we cannot continue to have the current level of wage increases ... And we can't have companies seeking to rebuild profit margins w…
Is wage setting not an activity taken on by the labor force? I can see how a reasonable person might interpret it that way, but I also see how it’s interpreted as a message to labor. Otherwise you might be suggesting that capital has all the negotiating power and there isn’t any market for labor and that sounds rather communistic which I’m sure these fellows wouldn’t ever imply
Re: Corporate profits account for almost half the increase in Europe’s inflation
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
how do you explain the fact that gazillions were printed for decades without much meaningful inflation? japan being the printiest of them all having had the least inflation of all crickets huh
The same way supporters of the greedflation hypothesis defend their position on corporate greed: by claiming it increased substantially in recent years. Except the money printing hypothesis champions have more convincing data.
> the money printing hypothesis champions have more convincing data
they really don't though, that's the point. they've been screaming that all the "money printing" is going to cause hyperinflation any day now for decades. eventually yeah we got some inflation, even a broken clock is right twice a day. their ideas have zero explanatory power. (if they did, how come we didn't get hYpErInFlaTioN decades ago, and STILL don't have it today?)
Re: Corporate profits account for almost half the increase in Europe’s inflation
#360Earlier quoted context omitted.
how do you explain the fact that gazillions were printed for decades without much meaningful inflation? japan being the printiest of them all having had the least inflation of all crickets huh
> how do you explain the fact that gazillions were printed for decades without much meaningful inflation? The amount of money printed since 2020 was literally unprecedented. Look at the M1 chart: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1SL > crickets huh Japan has the highest levels of inflation they've seen in over 40 years.
the spike on the m1 chart is not due to to inflation
the conspiracy theorists and armchair economists have been screaming that all the "money printing" is going to cause hyperinflation any day now for decades. eventually yeah we got some inflation, even a broken clock is right twice a day. their ideas have zero explanatory power. if they did, how come we (and especially Japan) didn't get hYpErInFlaTioN decades ago, and STILL don't have it today?