Kamala to fix food prices. Yay!

[BCP1928]

Another problem is that big corporations can first make prices so low that smaller producers cannot compete and after the smaller producers are destroyed, the big corporations make prices skyrocket, without a local competition.

This unethical practice is being used again and again, in various cities, towns etc. I think its illegal in many countries, not sure about the USA.

In the USA< if you ask a conservative, he will tell you that such things are the foundation of "free enterprise."

 

[ralliann]

Another problem is that big corporations can first make prices so low that smaller producers cannot compete and after the smaller producers are destroyed, the big corporations make prices skyrocket, without a local competition.

This unethical practice is being used again and again, in various cities, towns etc. I think its illegal in many countries, not sure about the USA.

The same is true of over regulating by various government agencies. Make it too expensive for the small guy.

 

[comana]

Agreed. She wants to blame high prices on greedy companies. It is inflation that is driving up costs,. Her and Joe caused the inflation.

This article disagrees: Why Your Groceries Are Still So Expensive

“Much Of This Pricing Activity Can Be Explained By Sellers’ Inflation ​

This is pressure from suppliers to increase prices. How? Professor Isabella Weber explains “that supply shocks allowed corporations to tacitly collude, hike prices, and rake in record profits…This is a form of implicit collusion,” she said. “Firms do not even need to talk to one another to know that a cost shock is a great time to raise prices.”

Alex Turnbull, a commodities analyst, echoes this, “When you go from 15 to 10 companies, not much changes. When you go from 10 to 6, a lot changes. But when you go from 6 to 4 – it’s a fix.”

And the record profits Professor Weber mentions? Groundwork Collaborative recently found that corporate profits accounted for 53% of 2023 inflation. EPI likewise concluded that over 51% of the drastically higher inflationary pressures of 2020 and 2021 were also direct results of profits. The Kansas City Federal Reserve even pegged this around 40%, indicating that sellers’ inflation is now a pretty mainstream idea.”

Companies are taking advantage and making inflation worse.

 

[ralliann]

This article disagrees: Why Your Groceries Are Still So Expensive

“Much Of This Pricing Activity Can Be Explained By Sellers’ Inflation ​

This is pressure from suppliers to increase prices. How? Professor Isabella Weber explains “that supply shocks allowed corporations to tacitly collude, hike prices, and rake in record profits…This is a form of implicit collusion,” she said. “Firms do not even need to talk to one another to know that a cost shock is a great time to raise prices.”

Alex Turnbull, a commodities analyst, echoes this, “When you go from 15 to 10 companies, not much changes. When you go from 10 to 6, a lot changes. But when you go from 6 to 4 – it’s a fix.”

And the record profits Professor Weber mentions? Groundwork Collaborative recently found that corporate profits accounted for 53% of 2023 inflation. EPI likewise concluded that over 51% of the drastically higher inflationary pressures of 2020 and 2021 were also direct results of profits. The Kansas City Federal Reserve even pegged this around 40%, indicating that sellers’ inflation is now a pretty mainstream idea.”

Companies are taking advantage and making inflation worse.

I don't trust your information, especially on food.. Kamala can prosecute them now and prove it. She could have been doing day one. But she has not.

 

[comana]

I don't trust your information, especially on food.. Kamala can prosecute them now and prove it. She could have been doing day one. But she has not.

My source is Forbes, a right center publication. Whether or not Kamala can do something right now doesn’t change the fact that corporations are driving high prices and reaping record profits at our expense.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Well, one can't have it both ways. The corporation that controls the supply to the point where it is free to raise it's prices knowing there is little competition is going to want to do so up to maximum profits, that's how they generally operate both theoretically and in practice.

The ranching example is particularly egregious because a small group of people control the flow of meat to the consumer and cheat both the rancher and the consumer for their maximum profit.

Here's a good video showing the problem:

As I said though, it shouldn't be possible for small ranchers to go out of business at the rate they are while meat prices go through the roof.

It's all part of the larger problem of the economy. People are skeptical of Harris' ideas....and rightly so....because she hasn't done anything for the last 3.5 years.

You can imagine Harris going to Biden and saying "I have a plan to help people out at the grocery store where they're all losing money" and Biden would be extatic (assuming this happened prior to his 8pm bedtime).

And had she done this back in 2022....we could see if it failed or succeeded....and if it succeeded, she'd actually have an accomplishment to run on.

I mean seriously....people defending Harris on here are parroting her talking points from her failed presidential campaign in 2020. She's been in a position of influence for the past 4 years. She has a Senate vote. She can introduce legislation. She can work with legislators to get things passed. She can also try to influence whomever is running Biden to use any power that falls under the executive branch to solve a problem.

I look back at her last 3.5 years and see someone who even the left said "no one likes her because she's difficult to work with" had the highest turnover rate of staffers (92% of those who worked for her left. She was notorious for not preparing for interviews and speeches and then blaming her staff once she made a fool of herself)

A former Kamala Harris staffer says aides have to endure 'a constant amount of soul-destroying criticism': report

A staffer who worked for Harris before she became vice president told The Washington Post that aides were "constantly sort of propping up a bully."

www.google.com

That's a business insider article on a WaPo article about how bad she was at the end of year 1! People kept noticing her staff kept leaving at an unusual rate.

And the idea that Harris was a dud and awful potential nominee persisted until it became obvious Biden wouldn't catch up to Trump....about May this year....then, they started polling a potential Harris run...and she was losing by less, but losing. Biden wasn't going to leave....because his position was the only thing keeping him and his son from prosecution. It was around May that she started showing favorability....

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/12/kamala-harris-favorability-poll-00162093

But no one can say why and I suspect it's due to Biden looking worse and worse at the time. She's really an example of the old adage "Better to remain silent and have others believe you a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." They list her accomplishments as "reproductive rights and standing in for Biden in international meetings and summits.

We all know why she was standing in for Biden during international meetings and summits. His brain no work right.

 

[BPPLEE]

You may have been mistaken lol.

Price gouging? No no no....price gauging. I don't know what it is...you don't know what it is...nobody knows what it is because it isn't a thing lol.

I forgot for a moment why they keep her away from reporters and interviews. She's dumb as rocks. I mean, obviously that's a slip of the tongue....but good lord. She's giving interviews to Walz instead of reporters because they want to hide her total lack of ability.

I get you're probably voting for her. I'm not faulting you for it....it's a two party system and most people don't like their candidate but they dislike the other candidate more....

But really...just wondering if you're buying into the whole astroturfing campaign or do you think she's a pretty lousy candidate? Would you have preferred the Democrats ran a primary? They don't have any time to run a primary now....but if they had, like the Republicans did, and offered up some choices....I think we can say Biden wouldn't have survived (his dementia would have shown) and they wouldn't have to hide Harris because nobody would have picked her. You would have a candidate who would have an actual platform long ago....and he wouldn't be saddled with the failures of this administration.

That's the benefit of having a primary, it weeds out candidates like Kamala.
If she succeeds at putting a cap on beef grocery chains will just raise prices on other items to more than make up the difference.

 

[ralliann]

My source is Forbes, a right center publication.

It does not agree with the various comments I have heard.

Whether or not Kamala can do something right now doesn’t change the fact that corporations are driving high prices and reaping record profits at our expense.

Not food suppliers...It is inflation Over regulation by government agencies has helped create many big companies in the first place. Kamala can and could have done what she claims to do all along.

 

[BPPLEE]

My source is Forbes, a right center publication. Whether or not Kamala can do something right now doesn’t change the fact that corporations are driving high prices and reaping record profits at our expense.

They weren't greedy 3 years ago? They weren't making huge profits 3 years ago? They only price gouge during an election year?

 

[ralliann]

They weren't greedy 3 years ago? They weren't making huge profits 3 years ago? They only price gouge during an election year?

And isn't that somewhat changing the definition of price gouging?

 

[BPPLEE]

In the USA< if you ask a conservative, he will tell you that such things are the foundation of "free enterprise."

That's the formula Walmart used

 

[Ana the Ist]

This article disagrees: Why Your Groceries Are Still So Expensive

“Much Of This Pricing Activity Can Be Explained By Sellers’ Inflation ​

This is pressure from suppliers to increase prices. How? Professor Isabella Weber explains “that supply shocks allowed corporations to tacitly collude, hike prices, and rake in record profits…This is a form of implicit collusion,” she said. “Firms do not even need to talk to one another to know that a cost shock is a great time to raise prices.”

Alex Turnbull, a commodities analyst, echoes this, “When you go from 15 to 10 companies, not much changes. When you go from 10 to 6, a lot changes. But when you go from 6 to 4 – it’s a fix.”

And the record profits Professor Weber mentions? Groundwork Collaborative recently found that corporate profits accounted for 53% of 2023 inflation. EPI likewise concluded that over 51% of the drastically higher inflationary pressures of 2020 and 2021 were also direct results of profits. The Kansas City Federal Reserve even pegged this around 40%, indicating that sellers’ inflation is now a pretty mainstream idea.”

Companies are taking advantage and making inflation worse.

Absolutely. 1. If it's not necessary, don't buy it. Force them to post losses.

2. Price fixing is a crime. It's just as illegal as insider trading. If Company A and Company B both sell at a higher price due to inflation....when inflation drops, both companies have a huge incentive to drop prices when inflation lowers, thereby undercutting the competition and taking a larger market share. Even in a 4 company situation....whichever company is 4th in terms of profit and size has a huge opportunity to profit by lowering prices. If they don't...it's price fixing, and should result in massive penalties and fines if not liquidation of a company.

These things don't happen though for a variety of reasons....mainly due to weakening the regulatory agencies over the years....but also due to the fact that politicians who campaign on money of big donors (all of them) and none of their own money (only Trump campaigns with his own money in addition to donors)....means politicians essentially work for the companies robbing you...not the voter.

Or, you can watch Bernie Sanders' recent speech on how we are now an oligarchy.

 

[BCP1928]

They weren't greedy 3 years ago? They weren't making huge profits 3 years ago? They only price gouge during an election year?

They started just about the same time that people noticed that grocery prices were rising faster than inflation. What a coincidence, huh?

 

[Hammster]

Breitbart gives a very biased view. I will look for a reliable source when I get home from the gym.

I have threads from CNN and WaPo as well.

 

[wing2000]

You may have been mistaken lol.

Price gouging? No no no....price gauging. I don't know what it is...you don't know what it is...nobody knows what it is because it isn't a thing lol.

Yea, I heard her gaffe.

I forgot for a moment why they keep her away from reporters and interviews. She's dumb as rocks. I mean, obviously that's a slip of the tongue....but good lord. She's giving interviews to Walz instead of reporters because they want to hide her total lack of ability.

A "dumb as rocks" persson would not be an efffective prosecutor in the court room.

I get you're probably voting for her. I'm not faulting you for it....it's a two party system and most people don't like their candidate but they dislike the other candidate more....

But really...just wondering if you're buying into the whole astroturfing campaign or do you think she's a pretty lousy candidate? Would you have preferred the Democrats ran a primary?

I would have preferred that Biden would have sat this one out from the start and give other candidates a chance on a level playing field. - or as level as it gets in our two party system. Given Biden's late decision, though, there was no time to run a primary.

 

[RileyG]

Food shortages too.

Yup. Which is why I don’t want her in the White House.

 

[comana]

They weren't greedy 3 years ago? They weren't making huge profits 3 years ago? They only price gouge during an election year?

price gouging is nothing new but companies have been raising prices well above inflation caused by Covid shortages. It didn’t start in 2024.

 

[comana]

It does not agree with the various comments I have heard.

Not food suppliers...It is inflation Over regulation by government agencies has helped create many big companies in the first place. Kamala can and could have done what she claims to do all along.

I am not inclined to trust “various comments you have heard” over a respected publication.

if this was only inflation driven price increases, then the companies wouldn’t be raking in record profits.

 

[ralliann]

I am not inclined to trust “ ariosi comments you have heard” over a respected publication.

if this was only inflation driven price increases, then the companies wouldn’t be raking in record profits.

The ones that are on the various news stations every week. Good enough for me. Especially seeing clips from some of the liberal news.
So as with everything else source verses source.

 

[iluvatar5150]

The op is quoting an opinion piece that assumes price fixing.

From today, her campagin indicated she would penalize companies that engaged in price gouging or "excessive" profits:

Harris’s plan will include “the first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries — setting clear rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries,” the campaign said in a statement.

The exact details of the campaign’s plan were not immediately clear, but Harris said she would aim to enact the ban within her first 100 days, in part by directing the Federal Trade Commission to impose “harsh penalties” on firms that break new limits on price gouging. The statement did not define price gouging or “excessive” profits.

What that means, exactly, is still TBD. However, she is not proposing fixing the price of milk, for example.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/08/15/kamala-harris-economic-policy-2024/?itid=ap_jeffstein

Amusingly? Ironically? Milk prices have been regulated for a long time.