The media seems bent on perpetuating the trump lies. Robert Reich reports “ upplies and labor -- which are real but expected when an economy goes suddenly from a pandemically-induced deep freeze to meeting the soaring demands of consumers who are emerging from the pandemic. Corporations enjoying record profits in a healthy competitive e…
The media seems bent on perpetuating the trump lies. Robert Reich reports “ upplies and labor -- which are real but expected when an economy goes suddenly from a pandemically-induced deep freeze to meeting the soaring demands of consumers who are emerging from the pandemic. Corporations enjoying record profits in a healthy competitive economy would absorb these costs.
3. Instead, they’re passing these costs on to consumers in the form of higher prices. In many cases they’re raising prices higher than those cost increases, using the cover of inflation to increase their profit margins even more.
4. They’re doing so because they face little or no competition. If markets were competitive, companies would keep their prices down to prevent competitors from grabbing away customers.
5. Since the 1980s, two-thirds of all American industries have become more concentrated. This concentration gives corporations the power to raise prices because it makes it easy for them to informally coordinate price increases with the handful of other companies in their same industry -- without risking the possibility of losing customers, who have no other choice.
6. Corporations are using these near-record profits to boost share prices by buying back a record amount of their own shares of stock. Stock buybacks hit a new record last year. So far this year they’re on track to exceed that record. Stock buybacks are predicted to hit $1 trillion this year -- an all-time high.”
The media seems bent on perpetuating the trump lies. Robert Reich reports “ upplies and labor -- which are real but expected when an economy goes suddenly from a pandemically-induced deep freeze to meeting the soaring demands of consumers who are emerging from the pandemic. Corporations enjoying record profits in a healthy competitive economy would absorb these costs.
3. Instead, they’re passing these costs on to consumers in the form of higher prices. In many cases they’re raising prices higher than those cost increases, using the cover of inflation to increase their profit margins even more.
4. They’re doing so because they face little or no competition. If markets were competitive, companies would keep their prices down to prevent competitors from grabbing away customers.
5. Since the 1980s, two-thirds of all American industries have become more concentrated. This concentration gives corporations the power to raise prices because it makes it easy for them to informally coordinate price increases with the handful of other companies in their same industry -- without risking the possibility of losing customers, who have no other choice.
6. Corporations are using these near-record profits to boost share prices by buying back a record amount of their own shares of stock. Stock buybacks hit a new record last year. So far this year they’re on track to exceed that record. Stock buybacks are predicted to hit $1 trillion this year -- an all-time high.”
I "liked", but who (apart from those raking in the spoils) can like this parasitical one-way feudalism?
A couple of remarks on greed (which in fact lies at the root of all Putin's politics, leading up to the war on Ukraine):
Greed makes men stupid.
Greed rules the world.
So why be surprised that we are ruled by idiots?
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"For greed all Nature is too little."
Seneca... who also rubbished another American fetish "success":
"Success is not greedy, as people think, but insignificant. That is why it satisfies nobody."