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Katie Porter: Bigger corporate profits account for *over half* of the higher prices (Original Post) Nevilledog Oct 2022 OP
I dunno, that's pretty complicated gratuitous Oct 2022 #1
Yes. mjvpi Oct 2022 #15
Your question isn't entirely facetious, sad to say. BobTheSubgenius Oct 2022 #37
Yup SheltieLover Oct 2022 #2
Doesn't surprise me at all. JoanofArgh Oct 2022 #3
I don't think we need politicians to tell us this. It's no Nixie Oct 2022 #4
We absolutely need politicians to tell us this. Who else is going to?? Not the corps or the Repukes. Evolve Dammit Oct 2022 #8
and none of the Nex Gen remembers Enron/ Bush/ Cheney/ Iraq. Even though we do. Evolve Dammit Oct 2022 #9
And that's why the repukes want to control all of the levers of government. They're pretending erronis Oct 2022 #35
The obvious solution is to tax the corporate profits FakeNoose Oct 2022 #24
I'd like to see her as Commerce Secretary or chair of calimary Oct 2022 #32
I watch retail prices rather closely bucolic_frolic Oct 2022 #5
Oddly, still $0.59/lb at the same store kwijybo Oct 2022 #14
1.79 on sale here but they are the yummy local apple bananas. mahina Oct 2022 #20
That's a great observation. I do our grocery shopping. Bananas KPN Oct 2022 #22
Bingo. bucolic_frolic Oct 2022 #27
Yup. I saw Lays Kettle Potato Chips with $6.89 printed on KPN Oct 2022 #43
Should be a commercial on every sporting event until election day JT45242 Oct 2022 #6
Should be but won't. KPN Oct 2022 #23
Send the clip to every news outlet blm Oct 2022 #7
I heard CBS news rattling on about Pres. Biden Marthe48 Oct 2022 #10
Of course! CEOs are trying to make up for the COVID years' losses.. n/t TeamProg Oct 2022 #11
I wish Americans knew this. SergeStorms Oct 2022 #12
Corporate taxes should go up proportionally. Sogo Oct 2022 #13
What? And admit Saint Ronnie was just a puppet and wrong, to boot? NullTuples Oct 2022 #19
At least to 50% MichMan Oct 2022 #21
A nice, progressive windfall tax would be tasty. Hermit-The-Prog Oct 2022 #26
Taxes are already proportional... Zeitghost Oct 2022 #34
Screaming this for months. Why, why, why hasn't this been a consistent message from ALL our Samrob Oct 2022 #16
Of course it is, but kacekwl Oct 2022 #17
just check recent oil company profits. Thats the driver ZonkerHarris Oct 2022 #18
Confirms what 'the man in the street' suspected all along. Also refutes the ignorant Fed. Hermit-The-Prog Oct 2022 #25
Post removed Post removed Oct 2022 #28
Are you using a homophobic/sexist slur as a pejorative on DU? Are you anti men/women who suck cock? Bernardo de La Paz Oct 2022 #42
If that is true, Progressive dog Oct 2022 #29
Prices are obviously higher because profits are at record levels. Hermit-The-Prog Oct 2022 #31
Because high yields in US Treasuries are a hurricane while stock market appeals are rain showers uponit7771 Oct 2022 #39
kick. Biden just called out the oil companies for using their profits to buy their own stock. Hermit-The-Prog Oct 2022 #30
Katie Porter is one of my other heroes! BComplex Oct 2022 #33
Me too..Love Katie Porter! whathehell Oct 2022 #38
Heard that on NPR this a.m. Volume of products sold went down while profits were historic highs. nt allegorical oracle Oct 2022 #36
So what could the government do about that? Laura PourMeADrink Oct 2022 #41
Yup and a couple months ago they surveyed execs who Laura PourMeADrink Oct 2022 #40
K&R Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Oct 2022 #44

gratuitous

(82,849 posts)
1. I dunno, that's pretty complicated
Tue Oct 18, 2022, 07:03 PM
Oct 2022

Can the average Joe Sixpack man on the street possibly comprehend this notion of "profits" and how it's driving inflation right now?

BobTheSubgenius

(11,535 posts)
37. Your question isn't entirely facetious, sad to say.
Wed Oct 19, 2022, 05:19 PM
Oct 2022

While I realize that one little anecdote hardly makes a point as large as this, it's indicative of a very serious problem. I know a woman going through a divorce right now, and came completely unglued at a meeting with her lawyer. because her financial reporting says she makes a significant amount more than fixed expenses every month. This is a big problem when one such as she is trying to get some support $, as she saw it.

The biggest stumbling block in this discussion of 45 minutes or so that should have taken 10 was her complete inability - or unwillingness, but the odds are hugely in favour of the former - to grasp the difference between gross and net.
And, no...she is not the mental midget you might think. She has a responsible full time job, maintains her own residence and vehicle, and is doing a splendid job of raising two daughters.

But, compared to her melt-down-and-sob inability to grasp such an easy concept, thinking that her lawyer must also be working against her, the lack of comprehension in the pairing of profits and inflation is not much of a stretch.

JoanofArgh

(14,971 posts)
3. Doesn't surprise me at all.
Tue Oct 18, 2022, 07:05 PM
Oct 2022

I know for a fact that gas stations are price gouging even with the rise in oil prices.

Nixie

(16,919 posts)
4. I don't think we need politicians to tell us this. It's no
Tue Oct 18, 2022, 07:15 PM
Oct 2022

surprise and fits a long history of the GOP’s phony supply/demand mantras. The results of the supply chain disruptions during Covid are obviously being exploited by many, even though there are still legit issues in the supply chain that are still ongoing.

Especially in California, how could anyone forget Dick Cheney’s secret meetings with energy honchos and then all of a sudden power plants started limiting production and lying about the supply/demand issue. It was total political manipulation. It’s not like only a handful of politicians can figure this out.

Evolve Dammit

(16,632 posts)
8. We absolutely need politicians to tell us this. Who else is going to?? Not the corps or the Repukes.
Tue Oct 18, 2022, 08:09 PM
Oct 2022

erronis

(14,941 posts)
35. And that's why the repukes want to control all of the levers of government. They're pretending
Wed Oct 19, 2022, 04:23 PM
Oct 2022

to be politicians but they are really just lobbyists for their special masters/oligarchs/interests.

The pittance (a couple of hundred thousand dollars) that they soak from the Treasury is nothing compared to their earnings (probably unreported) that they get from their masters.

FakeNoose

(32,328 posts)
24. The obvious solution is to tax the corporate profits
Tue Oct 18, 2022, 10:53 PM
Oct 2022

Corporations (and the Wall Street crowd) are scared shitless that we're going to figure this out. Once Uncle Sam starts taking his share of the corporate profits, suddenly prices will drop overnight.

calimary

(80,693 posts)
32. I'd like to see her as Commerce Secretary or chair of
Wed Oct 19, 2022, 03:28 PM
Oct 2022

the Council of Economic Advisors.

But that would take a great Dem out of the House of Reps, where we NEED every seat we can get.

bucolic_frolic

(42,654 posts)
5. I watch retail prices rather closely
Tue Oct 18, 2022, 07:15 PM
Oct 2022

because I look for potential clues to how the retailer is doing. I watch a lot in Walmart, but also a big eastern US supermarket chain, and a discount store.

What caught my attention is how some prices rise dramatically, while others stay flat or with low increases. We are told it's cost of materials. Then we're told it's cost of shipping. Then it's diesel fuel for trucks. Then it's lack of truck drivers.

Meanwhile the retail price goes up and up and up, then some back off a bit, then some go up again. The % price rise is not uniform across stores or goods.

The tell for me is BANANAs. The price has hardly moved this year. Somehow the weekly shipment of bananas has not been impacted by trucking costs, fuel costs. Maybe it's because bananas are only handled by one or two companies who do their own shipping? I dunno. But why wouldn't fuel impact them?

Retailers are probing the market for resistance from shoppers and will maintain their prices at that point. Don't hoard. It only feeds their greed.

kwijybo

(220 posts)
14. Oddly, still $0.59/lb at the same store
Tue Oct 18, 2022, 09:09 PM
Oct 2022

It was $0.59/lb in 2019. Makes you go hmmmmm.

There were inflationary surges in shipping during the pandemic (shipping container went from about $1750 to $20k (according to the tractor dealer), and has dropped to about $2k. To ship from China to the US.

mahina

(17,502 posts)
20. 1.79 on sale here but they are the yummy local apple bananas.
Tue Oct 18, 2022, 09:58 PM
Oct 2022

I have no idea what the big ones from the continent cost because I never buy those. Yuck.

KPN

(15,585 posts)
22. That's a great observation. I do our grocery shopping. Bananas
Tue Oct 18, 2022, 10:29 PM
Oct 2022

have hardly changed in price at all since Covid. Maybe a little, but 10% or a bit more at most. Many other products have nearly doubled over the same timeframe.

bucolic_frolic

(42,654 posts)
27. Bingo.
Wed Oct 19, 2022, 10:02 AM
Oct 2022

Wesson cooking oil, what was $2.49-2.99 in Feb is now 4.69 to 5.69, that just off the shelf this am at a local DISCOUNTER.

KPN

(15,585 posts)
43. Yup. I saw Lays Kettle Potato Chips with $6.89 printed on
Wed Oct 19, 2022, 09:50 PM
Oct 2022

the bag at local Safeway. We used to always buy them at $1.97 sale price or thereabouts. This time sale price: $3.99. Same product and size.

Capitalism at its best!?

JT45242

(2,173 posts)
6. Should be a commercial on every sporting event until election day
Tue Oct 18, 2022, 07:32 PM
Oct 2022

It's not Biden...it's the venture capital, the billionaire, etc.

Marthe48

(16,688 posts)
10. I heard CBS news rattling on about Pres. Biden
Tue Oct 18, 2022, 08:13 PM
Oct 2022

releasing more of the oil reserves.

Well, all of you r's and corporations are weaponizing anything that comes to hand to make Dems look bad. R's and corporations are weaponizing energy, food, shelter, health care, education and anything else they think will harm leftists the world over. They faked supply line issues, in case anyone forgot that.

As I washed my dishes, I wondered who will blink first? I doubt if President Biden will, and as we see prices keep going up, and people in general stop spending money, corporate greed is going to come back and bite them on the ass.

The really hard thing about this is being unable to determine what shortages and costs have been driven by climate change, and what is artifically forced by greed and lust for power.

SergeStorms

(18,882 posts)
12. I wish Americans knew this.
Tue Oct 18, 2022, 08:39 PM
Oct 2022

I also wish they knew that Russia is another major contributor to high energy prices, along with our "friends" the Saudis.

Of course for them to know that, we'd have to have the main stream media report on the reasons for inflation, but that will never happen.

They'd rather blame everything on Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats. That fits their business model better as well, because republicans just love cutting taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Democrats have this "radical" idea that they should pay their fair share. Ridiculous, right?

Samrob

(4,298 posts)
16. Screaming this for months. Why, why, why hasn't this been a consistent message from ALL our
Tue Oct 18, 2022, 09:14 PM
Oct 2022

candidates, at every level?

Response to Nevilledog (Original post)

Progressive dog

(6,861 posts)
29. If that is true,
Wed Oct 19, 2022, 11:34 AM
Oct 2022

Why is it that the stock prices are falling? The people who own those corporations are losing fortunes and those increased profits are tiny compared to the losses in value of the corporations. To make things worse market indexes are not adjusted for inflation.
Prices are obviously higher because demand exceeds supply.

uponit7771

(90,225 posts)
39. Because high yields in US Treasuries are a hurricane while stock market appeals are rain showers
Wed Oct 19, 2022, 06:41 PM
Oct 2022

Notice tons of money came out of other simple equities too

It happens EVERY single time the US treasuries says its rasing its rates to the levels they have in the last year

 

Laura PourMeADrink

(42,770 posts)
40. Yup and a couple months ago they surveyed execs who
Wed Oct 19, 2022, 06:41 PM
Oct 2022

Said the #1 reason they weren't drilling was because their stockholders didn't want them to. They liked the dividends and stock prices

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