I am really tired of people talking about inflation and grocery prices. Grocery Stores/Producers have already said publicly that prices were not high enough pre-pandemic. They have also said pricing will no go back to pre-pandemic levels because we have become accustomed to paying the higher prices. The inflation on groceries is artificial built upon corporate greed.
'lol' corporate greed is the cause of inflation now. you can fact check me on this. Businesses exist to be greedy. If you are leaving a dollar on the table, you're a crappy business person.
You can't have it both ways. You can't b**** about "inflation" and not acknowledge grocery companies are making record profits and stating consumers were not paying enough pre-pandemic and they aren't bringing prices back at the rate their costs have decreased.
"When asked during a conference in February how Conagra was able to raise prices without losing sales by volume, CEO Sean Connolly said “pricing was just too low in frozen pre-pandemic,” adding, “what we’ve been able to illustrate for the retailer is that consumers will welcome a $4.50 unit,” because at that price, a frozen meal is still a good value." "During its fourth-quarter earnings call, Coca-Cola was asked about reports of retailer pushback on pricing. “We’ve earned the right to price with the consumers,” said CEO James Quincey. If it can demonstrate that people will pay more for Coke, it can convince retailers that higher prices will be good for them, too, Quincey said. Coca-Cola said it plans continue to raise prices globally, noting that input costs are still higher than usual."
food for thought, Will Chinese deflation help lessen the West’s inflation problem? Chinese consumer spending, factory production and investments in long-term assets like property or machinery all slumped last month. Youth unemployment has hit record highs while an ongoing real estate and debt crisis has investors fearing the worst. On Monday, the Chinese government surprised investors by deciding not to cut an important interest rate that influences mortgages. Economists say the move will make it tough to revive confidence in the country’s real estate sector, and they’ve been downgrading their forecasts for Chinese growth this year. The world’s second largest economy, responsible for almost one-fifth of world GDP, is decelerating, and that has serious and direct implications for the rest of the world. “All else equal, a flagging Chinese economy may be one of several catalysts that could lead to recession later this year or early next,” wrote Jason Pride A tale of two economic tool boxes: Unprecedented stimulus by both the Federal Reserve and the federal government set the US up for a swift post-Covid economic recovery but also led to the highest inflation rates in 40 years — boosted also last year by soaring energy prices as a result of Russia’s warmongering. In China, meanwhile, policymakers focused on better managing debt, cracking down on private tech monopolies and eliminating real estate speculation, which set the country up for a disappointing post-Covid recovery and deflation, according to Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer at “Overall this is going to lead to a much weaker demand for European and US goods. That will help bring down inflation for a lot of the advanced economies that have been aggressively hiking interest rates.” A weaker yuan would make goods produced in China cheaper for countries with stronger currencies to import. That also means less demand from China for goods from the US and Europe, because Chinese consumers will have less buying power. “Overall this is going to lead to a much weaker demand for European and US goods. That will help bring down inflation for a lot of the advanced economies that have been aggressively hiking interest rates.”, according to Morgan Stanley's Shalett.
If nothing else, the lessen demand for US goods/services would lesson the possibility of a rate hike by the Fed
Right. The term coined was "Greedflation". Corporations certainly took advantage of rising prices to make them permanent and that is what is a successful business should do. It's also not all the inflation obviously, but it’s just not as simple as Helicopter money or the Feds. Did egg prices go up because there was too much money in the system or because the combination of bird flu, labor shortages, and supply chain issues
Fuel prices and labor prices have gone up quite a bit since Covid and will not come back down. If corporations are being too 'greedy', then that will leave room for the market to come in with competitors. If it was simply because of greed, restaurant prices would have come back down. People should be more cognizant when discussing inflation. Supply constraints should not be considered inflationary. eggs are a great example of this.
It's pretty simple: Companies will raise prices simply because they can. They formulate sales volume vs profit and set prices accordingly... and you would, too. If you could sell 100 sandwiches at $6 each or 80 sandwiches at $10 each, you'd choose the latter every single time... simply because you can. It's the wise business decision, even if the pricing was artificially inflated. The best solution is to avoid patronizing companies that have inflated their prices unnecessarily. Don't buy their $10 sandwiches. This accomplishes four things: it reduces your costs considerably, it increases the quality you receive, it improves your ability to do things like cook and repair, and it punishes the companies that jack up their prices when they don't really need to. There are still ways to eat healthy, delicious, and inexpensive.... but not convenient. You can buy a LOT of fresh, uncooked chicken legs at the grocery store for a very low price. Hell, Sam's Club sells a 3-pound back of peeled, deveined shrimp for $18 bucks (for lunch today, I ate a pound of delicious, healthy, grilled shrimp for $6). Two weeks ago, I bought snow crab legs on sale from Kroger at $8 a pound. Costco still has a whole, fresh-cooked, delicious rotisserie chicken for $5. Watch for sales. Buy in bulk & freeze. Cook your own food. Maintain your own stuff instead of buying new. Give up frivolous things like Starbucks coffee, nail salons, alcohol. Live below your means. A lot of what you're paying for is convenience, and the price for that convenience is jacked WAY up. What bothers me the most is.... as a worker, when I get a good raise in salary at the end of the year, it's around 3%.... while my costs increase 20%. That really really sucks. I don't have a solution for that one.
Huh of course gas will come back down. The only reason why gas is so high is simply bcz of refinery shortages cuz we took the Russians ones offline. Once the war ends gas prices will plummet. Also starting September 15 states can use the winter blend of gasoline which is 40-50 cents cheaper. Gas will come down in a month
Specifically speaking about groceries. There is no incentive to drop prices. They are all making money hand over fist. If one drops their price they will all drop their prices thereby less profit for all. They have absolutely no incentive to drop prices. It is collusion. Food is a necessity. Yes you see people dining out less, but they aren't consuming less food overall. Dining out is a luxury. Eating is not. Most people don't have the time to go to 3 different grocery stores to only shop sale items. Hell most places don't have 3 different stores they can go to. So all of these companies have said they aren't going back to prepandemic pricing or even prepandemic profit margins. I'd be fine if they went back to pre-pandemic profit margins, but they aren't. They are making record profits. I am all for profits, but ****ing over people for a basic necessity is wrong. You want to jack up the price of a TV, movie ticket, designer clothes, etc.,fine. You want to jack up food for no other reason than the almighty dollar then you are a scumbag.
The point is inflation isnt purely due to monetary/fiscal supply. When both Pepsi and Coke are raising prices…. Then what? Either switch to a store brand or pay up. It’s just fantasy to think a competitor will just pop up to take on these large corporations because there is room for competition. Supply constraints due impact inflation though. Putin invading when supply chains and commodities were out of whack in order to inflict as much pain as possible on the globe impacts inflation.
I love idiots who think they are being savvy by posing a question that could be answered by Googling.
he Fed is is using 2% target, in view of the huge 1-pus trillion Bidenomics government stimuli, to help achieve a soft landing. The Fed develop many quantitative econometric models to help develop that 2% inflation target. btw, Dylan LeCalir doesn't have one quantatiative reason as to why the target should not be 2%
this is false, it's a totally arbitrary number, it did not come from any modelling the least bad argument is that it's a number where they can slowly bleed away the savings of any poor peasant dumb enough to save in cash, without having them notice and riot Because your savings losing half its purchasing power in 25 years is immoral
Or we could just teach people what modern money really is instead of villifying it. Holding fiat in savings is as dumb as holding your savings in beaniebabies. Our education system has failed us. I'm really hoping Broken Money hits on this.
