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Inflation

As they rolled their eyes at the frustratingly familiar sight of price markups in grocery store aisles, shoppers in 2022 might have wondered whether corporations were doing everything they could to keep prices down as inflation hit generational highs...

Profits for companies in some of the world’s largest economies rose by 30% between 2019 and 2022, significantly outpacing inflation,
Math fail.

Greedflation in the food industry – myth or mystery?
The global food industry has resounded an emphatic no to the claims of jacking up prices to influence profits and margins, or keeping prices artificially high when commodity and oil costs began to retreat.

Prices of some inputs have yet to return to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, while food manufacturers say they have yet to fully recover the higher costs through pricing, while some are locked into more expensive hedging contracts for commodities and packaging. Nestlé, for instance, indicated on 27 July sugar and cocoa prices are 35% more costly than last year’s average.

“We find no clear evidence of profiteering and consider the accusations unreasonable,” Warren Ackerman, the head of Barclays’ European consumer staples team, concluded in support of food producers and grocery retailers in a lengthy analysis published on 4 July...

“Claims of profiteering seem particularly focused on the UK food retailers, but our analysis shows that Tesco, Sainsbury and M&S have seen little or no absolute profit growth and have actually seen significant margin erosion between 2019 and 2022,” they wrote.

Unite’s own research, revealed in a 28 March report, pointed to a 97% combined increase in profits for Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda in 2021 to £3.2bn ($4.1bn), “nearly double pre-pandemic levels”.

Nevertheless, the CMA’s review of Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury, as well as the discounters Aldi and Lidl, found operating profits fell 41.5% on average across those businesses, albeit for 2022-23. And operating profit margins dropped from 3.2% to 1.8%.
Are the accusations of profiteering merely a symptom of misunderstanding or even just flippant remarks?

“I think it’s much more serious and sinister than that,” Clive Black, a director at UK investment company Shore Capital, says. “There are single-issue people that want to challenge the market economy and there are stupid people who just come out with nonsense.

“I think there is a total utter intellectual incapability on behalf of a lot of people. It’s not a nice thing to say, it’s not something that one wants to say, but it’s a reality.”

People who accuse businesses of profiteering might want to consider their own culpability. Did they do what was necessary to eliminate the virus? Did they do anything to reduce their fossil fuel usage?
 
First off, no one is arguing that covid, supply disruptions, and war didn't result in inflation. It did. But many companies also used it as an excuse to raise prices beyond their increased costs to make even more money.

From the article I posted.

In the U.K., the research found that 90% of profit increases occurred among just 11% of publicly listed firms. Profiteering was more broad in the U.S., where a third of publicly listed firms were responsible for most of the increase in profits.

You posting an article about specific companies not being a part of that doesn't invalidate the articles and studies about the ones that did. Also the repeated statements in your article specifically insulting people's understanding and intelligence just makes it look less credible and more biased. Why should I go with what they said over the IMF?
 
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You posting an article about specific companies not being a part of that doesn't invalidate the articles and studies about the ones that did. Also the repeated statements in your article specifically insulting people's understanding and intelligence just makes it look less credible and more biased. Why should I go with what they said over the IMF?
I posted data refuting the implication that grocery stores are profiteering.

The article makes vague claims like "90% of profit increases occurred among just 11% of publicly listed firms" - a meaningless statistic. But they pretend it has meaning, and the public swallows it. Then they link it to an industry that is not profiteering, cementing the false belief in people's minds that the 'publicly listed firms' include major food retailers.

Frankly I'm disgusted. The truth has also been reported and is only a simple google search away, but how many will bother? Most will probably just dismiss it as more lies from the rich. And then we wonder why politics is so screwed up today - too many people with agendas who don't want to look at things rationally, and too many enablers promoting their BS.
 
The textbook case of "greedflation" was definitely not a grocery store.

The best example I can think of is the "pharma bro" Martin Shkreli:

In September 2015, Shkreli was widely criticized when Turing obtained the manufacturing license for the antiparasitic drug Daraprim and raised its price by 5,455% (from US$13.50 to $750 per pill).

A grocery store cannot do that sort of thing in a competitive market. Only a company that has effectively a monopoly on something like an essential drug can do that.
 
I posted data refuting the implication that grocery stores are profiteering.
The article makes vague claims like "90% of profit increases occurred among just 11% of publicly listed firms" - a meaningless statistic. But they pretend it has meaning, and the public swallows it. Then they link it to an industry that is not profiteering, cementing the false belief in people's minds that the 'publicly listed firms' include major food retailers.

Frankly I'm disgusted. The truth has also been reported and is only a simple google search away, but how many will bother? Most will probably just dismiss it as more lies from the rich. And then we wonder why politics is so screwed up today - too many people with agendas who don't want to look at things rationally, and too many enablers promoting their BS.

You sure did. Too bad the article wasn't implying that grocery stores are the ones profiteering. Nothing like being condescending while simultaneously misunderstanding the thing to which you are responding.

As I've already said numerous times, I acknowledge the role covid and the Ukraine Russia war have had in raising inflation. I just also acknowledge that some corporations saw it as an opportunity to raise prices beyond increased costs to raise profits. I'm not really sure why you are so insistent on denying ANY corporate culpability for inflation despite well known institutions such as the IMF and the Federal Reserve saying so, as well as leaked memos or even CEO's literally saying it on record.

https://www.casey.senate.gov/news/releases/greedflation-casey-releases-report-exposing-big-corporations-for-price-gouging

Between 2020 and 2022, corporate profits rose by 75 percent—five times as fast as inflation

Huggies diapers are up 6 percent while production costs fell by $75 million; Chicken prices are up 20 percent as Tyson has been ordered to pay fines for conspiring to inflate prices

From July 2020 through July 2022, inflation rose by 14 percent while corporate profits rose by more than 74 percent during the same period. Research by the Federal Reserve found that corporate profits contributed a large percentage to inflation in the first year of the pandemic, including accounting for all the inflation from July 2020 through July 2021 and 41 percent of all inflation from July 2020 through July 2022.

https://theintercept.com/2022/09/28/inflation-prices-investors-iron-mountain/

THE CEO OF Iron Mountain Inc. told Wall Street analysts at a September 20 investor event that the high levels of inflation of the past several years had helped the company increase its margins — and that for that reason he had long been “doing my inflation dance praying for inflation.”

At the September 20 investor event, Meaney explained that “where we’ve had inflation running at fairly rapid rates … we’re able to price ahead of inflation” — that is, increase its prices at a greater rate than the high recent rates of inflation. As Meaney put it, raising prices “obviously covers our increased costs, but … a lot of that flows down to the bottom line.”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/apr/27/inflation-corporate-america-increased-prices-profits

In earnings calls, executives detailed how even as demand and profits rose post-vaccine, they passed on most or all inflationary costs to customers via price increases, and some took the opportunity to add more on top. Margins – the share of sales converted into profits – also improved for the majority of the companies analyzed by the Guardian.

Hj7sbL8.png


But a closer look at the company’s financials suggests a vastly different reality. Hershey’s net profits spiked 62% between the fourth quarters in 2019 and 2021, its operating margin widened, and it recently rewarded shareholders with $200m in stock buybacks. Still, customers will pay even more for candy bars in 2022 as Hershey aims for even higher profits: “Pricing will be an important lever for us this year and is expected to drive most of our growth,” CEO Michele Buck told investors.

The Guardian’s findings are in line with recent US commerce department data that shows corporate profits rose 35% during the last year and are at their highest level since 1950. Inflation, meanwhile, rose to 8.5% year over year in March.

If you only see or care about one portion of a picture, then that's fine. But don't insult the eyesight of others while saying the rest of the picture doesn't exist.
 
I am continually amused at the implied notion that greedy corporations are responsible for the inflation of the last few years, after apparently not being greedy for the prior 35 years or so. Maybe the much maligned boomers (who are now mostly retired or close to it) were holding back, but now that Gen X is in charge, the greed is in full swing?
 
I am continually amused at the implied notion that greedy corporations are responsible for the inflation of the last few years, after apparently not being greedy for the prior 35 years or so. Maybe the much maligned boomers (who are now mostly retired or close to it) were holding back, but now that Gen X is in charge, the greed is in full swing?

You already made this strawman earlier in the thread. I am continually amused when people can't bother to read and comprehend what's actually being said yet feel the need to respond arguing anyway.
 
You sure did. Too bad the article wasn't implying that grocery stores are the ones profiteering.

No? Then explain this:-

The biggest study of ‘greedflation’ yet looked at 1,300 corporations to find many of them were lying to you about inflation

<picture of woman pushing shopping cart down supermarket aisle>

As they rolled their eyes at the frustratingly familiar sight of price markups in grocery store aisles, shoppers in 2022 might have wondered whether corporations were doing everything they could to keep prices down as inflation hit generational highs.
A loaded term, guilt by association, and a loaded question. The writer of this article is manipulating your emotions.

Why should corporations be 'doing everything they can to bring prices down'? Are they charities now?

The 'generational highs' is a good one too. Some of us remember when inflation was much higher. We also watched central banks artificially hold inflation back for many years. We knew that sooner or later this would come to an end - it just took the right push, ie. Covid. Frankly I'm surprised it isn't a lot worse.

Nothing like being condescending while simultaneously misunderstanding the thing to which you are responding.
The thing to which I am responding is what I documented above - news articles that are stuffed full of emotional manipulation and ambiguous facts.

If only that was the picture I was shown...
 
I am continually amused at the implied notion that greedy corporations are responsible for the inflation of the last few years, after apparently not being greedy for the prior 35 years or so. Maybe the much maligned boomers (who are now mostly retired or close to it) were holding back, but now that Gen X is in charge, the greed is in full swing?

Don't be silly. The corporations were always greedy. It's just that they recently realized they weren't being greedy enough and decided to become more greedy. Let's just hope they don't decide to become even more greedy in the future.
 
No? Then explain this:

The article mentions grocery stores because grocery stores are where consumers buy the products and therefor where they see the price increase. It DOES NOT MEAN that grocery stores are the ones profiteering. You see, the grocery stores don't actually produce any of those products they sell. They are produced by other industries, you know, like all those food producers in that nice graphic I linked you showing their insane profit increases far in excess of their increased costs due to inflation. Those are some of the companies that are using inflation to increase profits.

And I don't believe you don't understand this, especially after I pointed out to you that the article wasn't implying grocery stores are the ones profiteering. You also didn't even bother to address the actual arguments and now are trying to move the goalposts from whether part of inflation is due to corporate greed to arguing about stuff like:

Why should corporations be 'doing everything they can to bring prices down'? Are they charities now?

Sorry but that isn't the topic of this thread and no one was arguing about that until you just brought it up now as a distraction.

If only that was the picture I was shown...

It was, but that requires looking.
 
Now that you have presented some actual data, we can analyze it.

Let's start with the most egregious 'offender', Steel Dynamics, who are accused of 'greedflation' to the tune of +809%. Shocking, right?

Now the real picture:-

picture.php


In 2018 their net profit margin hit 11.49%. Today it's 13.73%, only 2.2% higher. 3 years ago, in the midst of Covid, it bottomed out at 5.18%. Sure they managed 19.8% in the middle of 2022, but where's the 809% increase?

Steel Dynamics describes itself as...
"...one of the largest and most diversified domestic steel producers and metals recyclers in the United States, with facilities located throughout the United States and in Mexico. We operate using a circular manufacturing model, producing lower-carbon-emission, quality steel using electric arc furnace technology (EAF) with recycled ferrous scrap as the primary input."​
They specialize in melting down scrap metal and turning it into rebar and rolled sheet steel. Here's some graphs showing the price history of scrap metal and sheet steel (hot-rolled band):-

picture.php


picture.php


Here we see that steel product prices go up and down with scrap metal prices. Despite wild fluctuations during Covid, the average price of HRB in the US today is the same as it was in 2018. We also see that the prices track globally - everywhere from China to Europe. Steel is a commodity. If one company is 'profiteering' they will soon be undercut by someone else.

Did Steel Dynamics' profit margin go up during Covid? Yes, but it went down first. Today it is only slightly higher than it was 5 years ago. Yes, their profit margin did peak in mid 2022, but not nearly as high as the misleading figures in that 'greedflation' article suggest. And we don't know why it increased. It's not uncommon for corporate profits to swing wildly depending on what business activities were involved - one year a big write-down puts them in the red, the next year they profit from reduced costs associated with it.

But more importantly the average price of steel products hasn't increased. Yes, it did spike during Covid (for obvious reasons), and perhaps Steel Dynamics did take advantage of the situation to increase their profit margins (though not by anywhere near 809%), but that's how capitalism works. And apparently it is working, because the price soon came back down to pre-Covid levels.

Steel Dynamics are being painted as the bad guys here, when we should be supporting their efforts to lower carbon emissions and create a circular economy. For many years they barely made a profit as they expanded their operations. Now it looks like that investment is finally paying off. I don't know whether they have raised their prices, but I would gladly pay a little more so they have the money to keep that going.

Right now the biggest cost increases I am facing are rates and insurances, both of which have spiked due to Global Warming. Unlike Covid this isn't just a speed-bump. This year my house insurance went up 20% and contents went up 40%. It now costs me an entire month's income just to pay for them, and next year it will probably be a lot worse. I can cut back on other stuff, but not these essentials.

If the World can't get a handle on Global Warming the economic cost will be devastating. We need companies like Steel Dynamics on our side to fix this. But the muppets who think corporations are evil are trying to put a spanner in the works. When the World goes to Hell they will still bleat about how it's all the fault of 'greedy' corporations, oblivious to the irony.
 
The article mentions grocery stores because grocery stores are where consumers buy the products and therefor where they see the price increase. It DOES NOT MEAN that grocery stores are the ones profiteering. You see, the grocery stores don't actually produce any of those products they sell. They are produced by other industries, you know, like all those food producers in that nice graphic I linked you showing their insane profit increases far in excess of their increased costs due to inflation.

Except that your #2 greedy corporation in that graphic is Albertson's, a grocer. So apparently your source (the Guardian, heh), thinks that particular grocery store has been profiteering.

And you have shown nothing about how there have been insane profit increases far in excess of their increased costs due to inflation, because you have shown nothing about increased costs. I looked at Albertson's financials for the last four years and their gross profit margin (after cost of goods sold) has ranged from 28.0% to 28.9%. Put another way their cost of goods sold has ranged from 71.1% to 72.0% of sales (and BTW that 72.0% is the most recent fiscal year). It's pretty clear they are not increasing their prices faster than their costs would justify.
 
Finally we check out Amazon, the third biggest progenitor of 'greedflation' with a massive +333% profit growth. Hardly a surprise - I mean Amazon, right? We always knew they were bastards, and here is the proof.

picture.php


Sept 2019 4.27%. Sept 2022 2.25%. Appalling!

If I had known about their insane greediness I never would have bought that hard-cover book from them last month.
 
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I am continually amused at the implied notion that greedy corporations are responsible for the inflation of the last few years, after apparently not being greedy for the prior 35 years or so.

I too am amused by things no one has said. LOL!

Maybe the much maligned boomers (who are now mostly retired or close to it) were holding back, but now that Gen X is in charge, the greed is in full swing?

No, boomers are still in a power position. Granted, older Gen Xers are rising as well. But, perhaps you mention that to take our focus from the actual greedy corporations.
 
You sure did. Too bad the article wasn't implying that grocery stores are the ones profiteering. Nothing like being condescending while simultaneously misunderstanding the thing to which you are responding.

As I've already said numerous times, I acknowledge the role covid and the Ukraine Russia war have had in raising inflation. I just also acknowledge that some corporations saw it as an opportunity to raise prices beyond increased costs to raise profits. I'm not really sure why you are so insistent on denying ANY corporate culpability for inflation despite well known institutions such as the IMF and the Federal Reserve saying so, as well as leaked memos or even CEO's literally saying it on record.

https://www.casey.senate.gov/news/releases/greedflation-casey-releases-report-exposing-big-corporations-for-price-gouging





https://theintercept.com/2022/09/28/inflation-prices-investors-iron-mountain/





https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/apr/27/inflation-corporate-america-increased-prices-profits



[qimg]https://i.imgur.com/Hj7sbL8.png[/qimg]





If you only see or care about one portion of a picture, then that's fine. But don't insult the eyesight of others while saying the rest of the picture doesn't exist.

They claim US worker's median wages increased 1.6% from the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2022. That is something we can check with the BLS (scroll down to fifth page), and guess what? Median weekly wages were 953 in Q1 2020, and 1032 in Q1 2022, an 8.5% increase.

Thank you for providing an excellent target, allowing us to demonstrate how skeptical thought can obliterate a silly conspiracy theory.
 
They claim US worker's median wages increased 1.6% from the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2022. That is something we can check with the BLS (scroll down to fifth page), and guess what? Median weekly wages were 953 in Q1 2020, and 1032 in Q1 2022, an 8.5% increase.

Thank you for providing an excellent target, allowing us to demonstrate how skeptical thought can obliterate a silly conspiracy theory.
You have to read the fine print:-

For fair comparison, 10 companies with negative profits are not included in the median growth figure. US workers’ wage growth from BLS is the change in the inflation adjusted median weekly earnings of private employees between the first three months of 2020 and 2022
Of course they don't provide a link to the relevant documents, so figuring out where they got that number from could be tricky.

More disturbing is that 'for fair comparison' they excluded companies with negative profits. Fair to whom?

Apparently The Guardian made up this graphic themselves - with the emphasis on 'made up'. I am at a loss to explain how they got their numbers. Unfortunately millions of readers now think they were presented with facts proving that 'greedflation' is real. Not much we can do about it from here - the damage has been done already. This is the kind of stuff that swings elections and causes politicians to make wrong decisions that will haunt us for decades.
 
Now that you have presented some actual data, we can analyze it.

Let's start with the most egregious 'offender', Steel Dynamics, who are accused of 'greedflation' to the tune of +809%. Shocking, right?

cut for brevity

The article stated its source for their information, which was first quarter SEC filings for 2020 and 2022.

2020 Filing

2022 Filing

They don't explain how they did their calculations so I don't know how they arrived at the number they did. But we can do our own calculations since we have the data.

Change in cost of goods sold from 2020 to 2022.
(3,787,389 - 2,159,871) / 2,159,871 = ~ .75
Their cost of goods sold increased 75% from 2020 to 2022.

Change in net sales from 2020 to 2022
(5,569,902 - 2,575,100) / 2,575,100 = ~ 1.16
Their net sales increased 116% during that same period.

This same math for their gross profit shows an increase of ~ 330%

So again no idea how they arrived at their figure but even 330% gross profit increase is still very large.
 
This is so bizarre to me. Of course greedflation is real. For profit corps extract as much profit as they can. This is like... duh. It's their reason for existing.

History shows that for the most part if corporations think they can get away with doing something to increase profits they will. Even if they don't think they can get away with it they still do it if they think the benefits outweigh the consequences.

Which brings me back to this earlier strawman from Brainster.

I am continually amused at the implied notion that greedy corporations are responsible for the inflation of the last few years, after apparently not being greedy for the prior 35 years or so. Maybe the much maligned boomers (who are now mostly retired or close to it) were holding back, but now that Gen X is in charge, the greed is in full swing?

I called this a strawman because no one ever argued that corporations haven't been greedy for the past 35 years. In fact, you are the one arguing that they suddenly stopped being greedy. Those past 35 years they're willing to take any opportunity that comes by to increase profits, but now you're arguing they aren't using the opportunity presented by covid, the supply chain disruptions, and high worldwide inflation to add to their bottom line?

Why the about face Brainster?
 
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I called this a strawman because no one ever argued that corporations haven't been greedy for the past 35 years. In fact, you are the one arguing that they suddenly stopped being greedy. Those past 35 years they're willing to take any opportunity that comes by to increase profits, but now you're arguing they aren't using the opportunity presented by covid, the supply chain disruptions, and high worldwide inflation to add to their bottom line?

Then what is your explanation for the relatively mild inflation rates from about 1985-2020? They didn't have a covid crisis and supply chain disruptions to blame things on? You're saying greedy corporations are to blame for the inflation of the last three years, what kept them at bay for those 35 years?
 
Then what is your explanation for the relatively mild inflation rates from about 1985-2020? They didn't have a covid crisis and supply chain disruptions to blame things on? You're saying greedy corporations are to blame for the inflation of the last three years, what kept them at bay for those 35 years?

Technological advances and decreasing barriers to worldwide trade imo.
 
By the way, I concede that the guardian graphic is not accurate. Or at the very least I don't see how they came to those numbers.

Do you concede that a CEO is on record admitting they like inflation because they can use it to increase profits beyond their increased costs and that it is incredibly unlikely that this is unique to this one company?

Do you concede that well known organizations like the Institute for Public Policy Research, the International Monetary Fund, and the Federal Reserve have all done studies in which they conclude that corporate profits contributed to inflation?
 
Then what is your explanation for the relatively mild inflation rates from about 1985-2020? They didn't have a covid crisis and supply chain disruptions to blame things on? You're saying greedy corporations are to blame for the inflation of the last three years, what kept them at bay for those 35 years?

I'm saying greedy corporations are to blame for SOME of the inflation of the last few years. Nothing kept them at bay for those 35 years. The ability to raise prices is relative to the opportunities available and it's pretty hard to really jack up your prices and blame it on inflation and supply chain disruption when there isn't worldwide supply chain disruptions due to a pandemic and crazy high inflation being talked about constantly on news and social media.
 
I'm saying greedy corporations are to blame for SOME of the inflation of the last few years. Nothing kept them at bay for those 35 years. The ability to raise prices is relative to the opportunities available and it's pretty hard to really jack up your prices and blame it on inflation and supply chain disruption when there isn't worldwide supply chain disruptions due to a pandemic and crazy high inflation being talked about constantly on news and social media.

I can accept that, but would point out that companies whose other costs stayed the same generally had to pay more for shipping (due to increased fuel costs) and salaries and benefits (the 8.7% increase in wages). The benefit of the capitalist system is that anybody who tries to get an excess profit will immediately come under attack from lower-priced competitors who see a chance to grab market share.
 
The benefit of the capitalist system is that anybody who tries to get an excess profit will immediately come under attack from lower-priced competitors who see a chance to grab market share.
That is why there are restrictive trace practices such as predatory pricing or supply chain squeezing that too-big-to-prosecute corporations are free to engage in.
 
The benefit of the capitalist system is that anybody who tries to get an excess profit will immediately come under attack from lower-priced competitors who see a chance to grab market share.

Unless that first company is raising prices because it has an overwhelming advantage that it knows can't be overcome. that may be due to a high bar for entry into an industry/market or the dominate company is able to use its leverage to force suppliers to not work with potential competitors. Or maybe all of the big players in a certain industry have all just decided to collude.
 
They don't explain how they did their calculations so I don't know how they arrived at the number they did. But we can do our own calculations since we have the data.

Change in cost of goods sold from 2020 to 2022.
(3,787,389 - 2,159,871) / 2,159,871 = ~ .75
Their cost of goods sold increased 75% from 2020 to 2022.

Change in net sales from 2020 to 2022
(5,569,902 - 2,575,100) / 2,575,100 = ~ 1.16
Their net sales increased 116% during that same period.

This same math for their gross profit shows an increase of ~ 330%
So again no idea how they arrived at their figure but even 330% gross profit increase is still very large.
If that is what they did then it's exactly what I said - math fail.

net sales / cogs
2,575,100 / 2,159,871 = +19.2%
5,569,902 / 3,787,389 = +47.1%

That's a gross profit margin increase of 27.9%, not 330%.

To show how ridiculous their supposed method is, consider a company that made a gross profit of $0 in Q1 2020 and $1 in Q1 2022. Can't get profits much lower than that. But 1 / 0 = Infinite 'profit increase'! :jaw-dropp No wonder they excluded companies that made a loss. :boggled:

But even 27.9% is meaningless as an indicator of 'greedflation' without context. Cost Of Goods Sold is not the only cost of running a business. In Q1 2020 Steel Dynamics had gross profit of $415,229, but a net income after tax of only $187,340 (on sales of $2,575,100). In Q1 2022 the net income was $1,103,931 on sales of $5,569,902. So the net profit margin was:-

Q1 2020 2,575,100 / (2,575,100 - 187,340) = +7.8%
Q1 2022 5,569,902 / 5,569,902 - 1,103,931) = +24.7%

Sound excessive? Oh yeah, they increased their profits while consumers were hurting. The cads!

But this number still tells us nothing about the actual selling price or whether the profit was 'reasonable'. Perhaps they were able to lower their costs by being more efficient and/or getting scrap metal at a lower price, and managed to keep prices down as well as making more money. Or perhaps they were suffering from higher costs too and just overestimated the selling price required to stay afloat. Should they be excoriated for that?

Do you concede that a CEO is on record admitting they like inflation because they can use it to increase profits beyond their increased costs and that it is incredibly unlikely that this is unique to this one company?
If the article focused on those individuals it would have had more credibility. Instead it painted with a broad brush and presented ludicrous numbers that border on libel, as well as grossly misinforming the public. If that was my paper I would force those responsible to publish a front page retraction that would stay up forever as a reminder to readers that journalists often get stuff badly wrong.

Do you concede that well known organizations like the Institute for Public Policy Research, the International Monetary Fund, and the Federal Reserve have all done studies in which they conclude that corporate profits contributed to inflation?
This doesn't mean what you think it does.

In times of uncertainty with rapidly increasing costs and general instability you should expect businesses to increase their gross profit margins to cope with the higher risk. If they happen to come out better off in the end it's not necessarily because they were 'greedy'. Predicting a chaotic market is hard, and if you get it wrong the result could be bankruptcy. You might also have to cut services, reduce R&D, sack staff etc. which will be worse than making enough money to keep the business healthy.

2020 to 2022 is probably the worst crisis the World has had to face in recent history (it's certainly the worst in my 66 year lifetime). To expect corporations to operate as efficiently as possible in these troubled times is not reasonable. Sure some CEOs welcomed the opportunity to profit from the chaos, but many more wished they didn't have to deal with it.

Blaming the mild inflation we are currently experiencing on 'greedflation' is just wrong. But nobody wants to face up to the real cause - irresponsible people who didn't treat the virus seriously. Chickens are coming home to roost and we need a convenient scapegoat.
 
Unless that first company is raising prices because it has an overwhelming advantage that it knows can't be overcome. that may be due to a high bar for entry into an industry/market or the dominate company is able to use its leverage to force suppliers to not work with potential competitors. Or maybe all of the big players in a certain industry have all just decided to collude.
Antitrust law
Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust law (or just antitrust), anti-monopoly law, and trade practices law..

The history of competition law reaches back to the Roman Empire. The business practices of market traders, guilds and governments have always been subject to scrutiny, and sometimes severe sanctions. Since the 20th century, competition law has become global. The two largest and most influential systems of competition regulation are United States antitrust law and European Union competition law. National and regional competition authorities across the world have formed international support and enforcement networks.
 
Unless that first company is raising prices because it has an overwhelming advantage that it knows can't be overcome. that may be due to a high bar for entry into an industry/market or the dominate company is able to use its leverage to force suppliers to not work with potential competitors. Or maybe all of the big players in a certain industry have all just decided to collude.

All these things can happen, although the last is actually illegal (it happens--see the LIBOR scandal, for a hugely significant example). In most cases, however purchasers have other options if they find prices too high--substitution is common. When eggs went to $5.00 a dozen here during covid briefly, I decided to have another slice of bacon instead with my breakfast.
 
All these things can do happen,

FTFY

although the last is actually illegal

Ya, because that stops it from happening.

(it happens--see the LIBOR scandal, for a hugely significant example).

That we know of. and is prosecuted. I'd argue anytime some company honcho goes on TV and makes a declaration about, say remote work, they are signaling their fellow honchoes in the same or parallel industries. And I'm sure they never ever discuss these things at the boards they sit on or at the private club, or the fancy gala, or any of the palces they gather that don't require documentation.

In most cases, however purchasers have other options if they find prices too high--substitution is common. When eggs went to $5.00 a dozen here during covid briefly, I decided to have another slice of bacon instead with my breakfast.

You understand that something like eggs serves a purpose beyond the center of your plate, right? Is this the typical conservative "its not a problem if it doesn't directly affect me" thinking? Eggs are a staple for a reason. You can't bake a cake with a strip of bacon in place of the eggs. You can't make meatloaf that way. And that's just home cooking. what if you actually make food for a living? Adding a strip of bacon doesn't work there.
 
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