this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2024
42 points (87.5% liked)

News

23301 readers
3714 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 21 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Bare shelves during the COVID-19 pandemic may have made inventory managers more conservative. That more conservative approach to inventories, in turn, could have generated a wider gap between output prices (where higher prices diminish end demand and therefore boost inventories) and input prices...Output prices rose significantly more than input prices, i.e., firms hiked margins, potentially as a mechanism to better conserve inventory...(Note that this potential driver of COVID-era margin expansion is distinct from and potentially more plausible than “greedflation.”)

Maybe it started out as inventory managers trying to conserve inventory due to uncertainty, but if you look at the charts, output prices spiked even after input prices had come down significantly, and after supply chains had normalized considerably. I think once the businesses saw that people were still buying at the higher prices, and the record profits they were making, they couldn't turn down the opportunity. It was probably a combination of inventory management and greedflation. There's no reason why it has to be only one or the other.

[–] fukhueson@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

It was probably a combination of inventory management and greedflation. There's no reason why it has to be only one or the other.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/corporate-greed-not-blame-price-pressures-fed-study-shows-2024-05-13/

Corporate price gouging has not been a primary driver of U.S. inflation, according to research published on Monday by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

While markups for motor vehicles and petroleum products did rise sharply during the 2021-2022 inflation surge, markups across the entire spectrum of U.S. goods and services have been relatively flat during the post-pandemic recovery, the bank's latest Economic Letter showed.

"As such, rising markups have not been a main driver of the recent surge and subsequent decline in inflation during the current recovery," wrote the bank's research chief Sylvain Leduc and colleagues Huiyu Li and Zheng Liu.

[–] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's a different article. In the original article you posted, the included charts (charts 5 and 6) clearly show a spike in output prices, even after input prices had come down significantly, as I said.

[–] fukhueson@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

You're correct it is a different article. It is reporting on greedflation.

[–] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Well, maybe the analysts at the Fed made their determination prematurely. Maybe it's a blind spot in their analysis. I don't think companies planned it, necessarily. I'm sure they were as surprised as anyone that consumers were paying the higher prices, but the businesses were, nonetheless, more than happy to reap the rewards. I don't think it's that unbelievable. That's why businesses exist, to make as much profit as possible. If consumers are willing to give them more money, they'll take it. I certainly don't expect them to turn down the extra profits.

[–] fukhueson@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Well, you're entitled to your opinions, I'll stick with the data.

[–] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure the data backs up what the Fed is claiming. Regardless, data doesn't necessarily tell the whole story, and if you look only at numbers, figures, and ratios, your analysis is likely insufficient.

[–] fukhueson@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I disagree entirely. I would counter that your unsourced personal opinion does not counter data.

[–] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Well, let's assess. Do you agree that businesses and companies exist primarily to make as much profit as possible? If so, wouldn't you also agree that it therefore makes sense for companies to seek to maximize profits at every available opportunity?

[–] sunzu@kbin.run 1 points 4 months ago

Price gouging is an illegal practice that should have been stopped by the state.

The state allowed it to happen despite the law.

The state is captured by the rent seekers.

Everything is working as intended?

Also a lot of price gouging happened with things like food and rent.

[–] fukhueson@lemmy.world -1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I think it's way more complicated than that, and that the article disagrees with your unsourced personal opinions. I had hoped you'd have some collection of well sourced articles backing up the simplistic assertion of "line goes up" meme that directly counters the specific data in the article, but unfortunately I see you do not have any reliable data to support your position, much less refute what is in the article. I don't see this going anywhere.

[–] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

I think it's way more complicated than that

It is, but I wasn't claiming to be offering an all encompassing theory of the universe, I was offering a premise for my argument. Saying, "it's complicated" is not a refutation of my premise.