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In April, Société Générale economist Albert Edwards released a scathing note saying he hadn’t seen anything like the current levels of corporate greed in his four decades working in finance. He said companies were using the war in Ukraine as an excuse to hike prices in search of profits.
“The end of Greedflation must surely come. Otherwise, we may be looking at the end of capitalism,” Edwards wrote. “This is a big issue for policymakers that simply cannot be ignored any longer.”
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Greed is not a new force in the world so anyone trying to sell recent increases in inflation as a function of greed is either mistaken, or lying to you.
So you’re saying the unusual increases in profit corresponding to inflation is in error? The authors published their methodology. Please show your work.
Okay my work is basic logic.
Imagine a graph of greed over time. This graph is a horizontal line, like this:
“ _______
Now imagine a graph of inflation over time. This graph has a spike in it, like this:
______/
See the difference here? It makes no sense to argue that the spike in the second graph is a result of the variable being shown in the first graph, because one of those variables stayed instant and the other one did not.
Now here’s a graph showing the amount of competition between companies in the same time period. See if you notice any patterns:
———-\
Oh! Interesting. Looks like the competition between companies went down. Could it be that variable is somehow associated with the increase in inflation?
What could have caused that drop in competition between companies?
Well, let’s look at the graph of companies being forcibly shut down by the government, and see if there are any interesting patterns:
_____/_
Oh what’s this? What is that enormous spike in companies being forcibly shut down? Oh right, that’s when we forcibly shut down millions of small companies. We called it “the lockdowns”, and sure enough it destroyed huge numbers of companies, reducing the amount of completion in the market.
So, to recap:
Greed:
Inflation:
__________/Competition:
——————\I hope this has been an informative journey through the world of basic logic.
It’s a good thing all of economics can be explained by a simple diagram consisting of underscores and a slash or this would have been a big wasted effort.
Yeah. It’s a shame the authors of the study wasted their time with empirical data instead of just asking a random person on the internet for their “logic.”
Many companies are lying, period
This has been public knowledge since the very first quarterly earnings call in the greedflation era.
No surprise there, really. Those corporations were posting record high profits… In an environment of “real” high inflation those companies don’t get to increase their profits and their margins like that. Yet most news publications lend then a microphone for them to spread their lies instead of calling their bullshit. It’s not inflation, it’s greed. Why would they want you to pay less instead of more? It’s not like capitalism was invented yesterday. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
economist Albert Edwards released a scathing note saying he hadn’t seen anything like the current levels of corporate greed
An economist worth his salt should be considering. “Why didn’t this happen earlier?” Instead of being “shocked”.
We actually already know the answer to that. In a normal environment raising prices is something consumers are very sensitive to. But when there’s already inflation consumers are very bad at gauging what the new price should be. The corporations know this and have for some time. They were just waiting for a good moment to raise their prices.
They absolutely do get to increase their profits and margins like that. They did, and they will again.
Welcome to c a p i t a l i s m
Grocery prices at ALDI have barely budged over this whole shitshow.
And in a related story, a new scientific breakthrough has discovered that the sky is made of air.
No shit.
We know, just goes to show how out of control these capitalist pigs truly are
But the trillion dollar company told me times were tough for them and their billionaire ceo. I should trust them, they know everything about me and have no reason to decieve me
“Times are tough” = everything from “1 week til collapse” to “might not meet our growth stretch targets, that trigger my massive bonus”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A joint study by think tanks IPPR and Common Wealth found profiteering by some of the world’s biggest companies forced prices up significantly higher than costs during 2022.
Analysts have typically laid the blame on supply-chain bottlenecks created by excess demand during the COVID-19 pandemic and exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Profits for companies in some of the world’s largest economies rose by 30% between 2019 and 2022, significantly outpacing inflation, according to the group’s research of 1,350 firms across the U.S., the U.K., Europe, Brazil, and South Africa.
The biggest perpetrators were energy companies like Shell, Exxon Mobil, and Chevron, which were able to enjoy massive profits last year as demand moved away from Russian oil and gas.
In April, Société Générale economist Albert Edwards released a scathing note saying he hadn’t seen anything like the current levels of corporate greed in his four decades working in finance.
In November, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon suggested the era of high inflation in the U.S. was over, and shoppers may soon begin to experience a contraction in prices—known as “deflation”—in company stores.
The original article contains 639 words, the summary contains 182 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Otherwise, we may be looking at the end of capitalism.
Don’t threaten me with a good time.
I can’t wait for capitalism to end. Here’s a good video explaining it…
‘Why it’s a hard time imagine life after capitalism’ https://youtu.be/PaASqPnpq5Y
Seriously, promise?
I and my family will take the painful collapse and rebuild, because at least that provides hope for a better future, unlike today’s path, further enriching a few thousand sociopath’s ego scores in their race to see who can burn up the the planet for private profit the fastest.
Living under the tyranny of the greed class is just pain by design. Pain in generational perpetuity.
We’ve had political, social and economic revolutions before without shit collapsing. Lots of death and destruction though generally. People don’t give up power easily unfortunately.
Yeah, seriously. The path is so obvious and linear for society today due to that. I feel like it just gets easier to predict the future, from axioms such as “the rich are powerful and will always try to expand their influence and cement their rule”.
It’s easy to see that climate change will never be solved for as long as something big doesn’t change, wealth inequality will keep rising, it will just keep being more and more expensive to live and own things, working conditions won’t improve or may even worsen, automation will put out more and more people out of a job, creating a massive crisis, poor countries will get worse leading to wars or other crises, and ever more commercialization of everything, such as art and hobbies.
At least, unless it collapses/a revolution happens.
This is all a bit optimistic. The collapse of society will have a measurable human toll and may seal the deal on the chance of a better future. Very optimistic to think the resulting power struggle will result in anyone other than a dictator taking power.
but that’s all already happening anyways. it’s not a risk to changing things if it is a given in the status quo
Happening, hasn’t happened. Op is suggesting we just succumb. If I have to explain why that is a stupid notion I’m not even going to start with you.
He’s literally complaining about capitalism while saying it might end capitalism. Fucking wild.
He’s literally complaining about capitalism while saying it might end capitalism. Fucking wild.
Capitalism could work with very strong governmental oversight. You have the hustle and means to get filthy rich? Good for you. You want to get filthy rich x 10,000? Get fucked.
He’s an economist at one of the worlds top financial company, of course he considers capitalism has some good and wants to preserve it.
it’s telling how capitalists are worrying they’re fucking us too hard and might blow up the whole system in the process. their own stability in massive wealth and inequality would be safer if they’d back off a little but they can’t help themselves
I feel as though there’s a lot of one-upmanship in the capitalist class that prevents them from working in their own long-term best interest, coupled with a sense of infallible invincibility. Many capitalists believe they have what they have because they deserve it, and any moves to redistribute wealth that would maintain the status quo become untenable because of that constant drive to have more than your neighbour.
Accelerationism is a fucking dogshit ideology, but just like all dogshit ideologies, there’s an element of truth to it. Shit like this could literally end capitalism.
if you literally break the economy to the point where average people can’t afford necessities, it’s over. people won’t work if there isn’t food and a roof as rewards. they’ll be forced to seek those needs outside the system. many will die in this process but none will work for capitalist profit
The thing is, it’s an inevitability of capitalism. When you have a system who’s measurement of success is how much material wealth you can accumulate, people are going to do their best to accumulate as much wealth as possible. Which means putting basic needs on the back burner if they don’t make you enough money.
I think people wanting stuff is pretty much endemic to people, whatever economic system happens to be in place.
True, but capitalism incentivises wanting beyond what you can possibly use. Billionaires could never genuinely spend all of their money on themselves. It’s human to want what you don’t have; it’s inhuman to want to amass more than you could use by taking it from the mouths of others.
All our regulations are so eroded, our government bodies so toothless and captured, that these companies are just fucking around with people’s lives because they can. There is no recourse. Burn your local chain store today.
Now that there’s a study that proves what we all already knew, there’s going to be real change
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No shit?? Wow…let me… WOW ???
Who even knew?
