Robovski
Well-known member
Some of that will be down to what we negotiate with Canada.I wonder if lumber is finally going to come down in 2022...
Some of that will be down to what we negotiate with Canada.I wonder if lumber is finally going to come down in 2022...
What's the general supply situation in AZ at the moment?One thing that is nearly impossible to get are clear plastic cups and lids here in AZ. A friend of mine runs a nutrition club where they sell teas and shakes and it's gotten to a crisis level for cups and lids.
I wonder if lumber is finally going to come down in 2022...
They're a dollar for a dozen where I live. Alternatively, cans of cheap Chicken Alfredo (my guilty pleasure) aren't even available at the dollar stores near me.One thing that is nearly impossible to get are clear plastic cups and lids here in AZ. A friend of mine runs a nutrition club where they sell teas and shakes and it's gotten to a crisis level for cups and lids.
Consumer prices are going up, but corporate profits are rising even faster.
Walmart, which announced third-quarter financial results this morning, was able to post better-than-expected earnings in part by offering fewer discounts to shoppers, but a lot of large firms have spent their recent quarterly calls bragging to investors about their ability to hike prices with relative impunity.
"What we are very good at is pricing," Colgate-Palmolive CEO Noel Wallace said. "Whether it's foreign exchange inflation or raw and packing material inflation, we have found ways over time to recover that in our margin line."
"We've been very comfortable with our ability to pass on the increases that we've seen at this point," Kroger CFO Gary Millerchip said in October. "And we would expect that to continue to be the case."
Corporations have a tendency to try and boost profit margins during periods of elevated inflation, The Wall Street Journal reported, and now is no different.
Roughly two-thirds of the largest publicly traded US companies have reported better profits this year than the same period in 2019, the WSJ found, citing FactSet data. Nearly 100 of those were performing at least 50% better this year than in 2019.
Former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich called this phenomenon a "symptom" of "the economic concentration of the American economy in the hands of a relative few corporate giants with the power to raise prices."
Inflation may be a problem for consumers, but the bigger issue is a lack of competition, Reich said.
"Corporations are using the excuse of inflation to raise prices and make fatter profits," he said.
American industries have gotten dramatically more concentrated in recent decades, diminishing the number of market competitors and increasing corporate price-taking power.
Corporate pre-tax profits as a share of total US output has also reached a multi-year high of 13.5% in the second quarter, which means that companies are taking an even larger slice of the economic pie. And that number is trending higher.
For example, consumer goods giants Unilever, Proctor and Gamble, and Colgate-Palmolive have remarkably similar portfolios of brands selling similar products, and each reported improved profits from higher pricing in the third quarter. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo also rolled out price increases around the same time.
This is not to say that there is illegal price-fixing going on, but having so few players in the game makes it a lot easier for companies to follow similar strategies.
Even the auto industry, which is pretty competitive compared with other consumer goods categories, is currently navigating its own version of the classic "prisoners dilemma" from economic game theory.
High demand and low supply has allowed most companies to boost profits by offering fewer discounts — a move automakers have wanted to do for decades — but the minute one company starts cutting deals to take market share, the others will soon face pressure to follow.
Input costs are indeed making it more expensive for businesses to provide goods and services, but the healthy profits that companies are taking in show that they're doing just fine as consumers increasingly see their buying power evaporate.
The remedy, Reich says, is not a higher interest rate from the Federal Reserve, which would likely slow down the economic recovery.
"This structural problem is amenable to only one thing: the aggressive use of antitrust law," he said.
When there's a lot of complex rules, it's much harder to start something small, and build it into real competion for big companies.
The solution is not more laws, it's just letting people start new companies that can compete.
And, yes, it's happening. Of course, when prices get to a certain point, people just stop buying. That's the point when things change, and fast.
Much like Uber and taxi's, the new innovation broke a bunch of monopolies (Inc Sydney, Australia, where I live.) and lowered prices, but only the disruption of something new could free things up, that way.
(There's times, like days ending in 'y', where I hate the Aust Gov)
It's not just that, China is buying lumber all over the world, like it's going to run out, thus driving up the prices. Russia, of all places, put limitations on lumber exports, there are calls within the EU to do the same, but politicians are too beholden to Chinese money and have no problem allowing China to kill off yet another branch of industry..Not likely. It's one of the industries where the Green types have worked hard to cripple it, they're not going to let go until they personally suffer, and often even then.
the argument is that laws and regulations prevent new businesses, what's the evidence?
How can they compete in the existing market conditions? That's why you need laws and regulations. If the argument is that laws and regulations prevent new businesses, what's the evidence?
I can't speak to Australia, but in the U.S. what ended up happening with Uber/Lyft is they undercut the taxis and then immediately started raising prices.
Control. It’s about control. That and pushing the idea of automated transport, I suspect.I don’t understand why? I thought the vaccine didn’t stop you from getting Covid and passing it on and merely made the disease less dangerous for the vaccinated person? What’s the point of doing this then?
I am confusedm
Automatic transport will fail so hard that even the rich will run out of goods if they try.Control. It’s about control. That and pushing the idea of automated transport, I suspect.
You know I'm surprised that THAT hasn't gone to court yet? The fact they keep moving the goal posts?Also, "fully vaccinated" seems to be a moving goalpost.
Also, "fully vaccinated" seems to be a moving goalpost.
All reasonable arguments as to why they shouldn't be doing this; unfortunately, it's become rather obvious that they rejected reason a long time ago. They're going to have to learn the hard way now.Automatic transport will fail so hard that even the rich will run out of goods if they try.
Also, there is no way the can enforce that, and there is no way it wont get shot down by SCOTUS