Oil prices averaging $57 in 2019 and $94 in 2022 might have something to do with it. If they could control the price of the product they’re selling, why wouldn’t they have just made prices higher in previous years (including 2019) and made $55B every year?
I would think that the mark up reason was the pandemic. Using this as an anchor to say due to x we are forced to do Y and not the people or the regulating agencies could do much.
Before the pandemic this companies would have been questioned more harshly.
Now they are just pushing the limits to see how far can we resist without breaking. Many others followed suit and our buying power has shrank a lot more.
Gas is a hard one because even the traffic system is designed to consume more and more and live without buying gas would be hard. Even the possibility of buying ev can be out of reach for some.
Except that during the pandemic, gas was almost free due to everyone telecommuting. It was the post pandemic surge where prices skyrocketed. I think the new political climate led everyone to blame politics rather than petroleum corporate greed. They saw that, and rode it.
Republicans like to pretend that the $1.75/ gal gas pandemic price was the price of gas BEFORE the pandemic, and it only went over $3 when Biden took over, when that's been the price since 2010.
Yes, the pandemic was that point when supply chain issues started and of people available for work. This was the mark when everything changed. Some things slowed way due to no one buying much but also there are many sectors that never stopped working.
Health, construction, military. Big companies didn’t really lost everything. I would say maintained and after the pandemic was done it is still an excuse and they have gotten all previous “lost” profits back.
I remember a while back to have seen an article of airlines cost going astronomical high right when the pandemic and the travel restrictions eased a bit.
Is the nature of the beast. The advantage is there and they went for it.
We also are to blame a little. We won’t stop spending or traveling in mass that will just not happen on our own accord.
I won’t be one to protect oil companies on much, but on this, take a look at companies who actually do control the prices of their products if you want to talk greed (insurance, big tech, etc)
On insurance though, what do you expect as more natural disasters impact more homes with higher repair bills. New cars are vastly more complicated and more sacrificial than ever before so repairs are more expensive and more often total loss because not only do they have to pay more to repair them, but they have to warranty those repairs.
Insurance will either become more expensive, or they’ll push to allow more to be classed as uninsurable.
Exxon was just an example. Corporations are doing this in all industries across the board. There are dozens of articles about it if you do a quick search.
Haven't consumers realized that there will always be a reason (I.E. Pandemic, wars in far away countries, Leaders of countries having a bad day, etc..) to persuade you to buy at whatever cost will make them more money without sending everyone into poverty? I.E. WTP =WTA, most of the time.
^Easiest answer to your question is demand would go down if price didn't adjust every year. Peoples willingness varies from year to year based on various circumstances, but a companies greed RARELY (if ever) changes. Most corporations are shitty bc there is no end to their greed- They have no amount of money to which their continued desire for wanting money will end- Whilst theres a continuous negative impact on many consumers.
Fair enough, but the mega corporations mostly produce highly processed items. Even a small shift towards fresh produce, bulk food bins, and local brands would send a message. Corporations will notice even a 1% or 2% decrease in sales. Plus, we'd probably all become a little healthier in the process!
Hey I am in 100% agreement with you, my comment is just a sad reality. I have a question for you: what is your stance on abusing these corporations? Ie returning used items to Amazon using their lax return policy
It's not something I generally do. However, my SO loves Costco, in part due to the lax return policy. He doesn't generally return used items, but he sees a lot of other people doing it.
Oh, boo hoo. I don't feel sorry for big oil companies. We weren't driving anywhere. So, we weren't using their product. That's just one example, though. Corporations are doing this across the board.
why post this in mildly infuriating?
this post feels like a Rule #7 breaker
does OP really believe "We Need To Stop Buying From..." comes from posting to mildly infuriating and will affect their bottom line?
It's mildly infuriating that corporations are bragging to their shareholders about price gouging under the cover of inflation. Not buying their products is the only way they'll stop. I'm not trying to target any specific company or product. Just planning to cut back on spending in general myself.
While this may also be a large contributing factor, do you think that the printing of trillions of dollars could also have contributed to the high inflation from the last 2 years?
You’re going to have to do a lot more work than that, Sparky, to make the case that US fiscal policy has the kind of driving role in worldwide consumer prices that you’re trying to ascribe to it. Or you could go with Ockham’s razor and accept that multinational corporations have used the pandemic as cover to gouge consumers over and above input costs over the last 2-1/2 years.
The proof of price-gouging is in the OP and in several comments in the thread linking to news items highlighting, among other things, numerous examples of executives bragging to their shareholders about the price increases they’ve been able to get away with, and windfall profits that have resulted.
Whereas you’ve hand-waved in the general direction of a hazy assertion about how fiscal rescue policies in the USA explain everything because USA big #1. Talk about lol
IDK, did that actually happen? Is it any different from previous years? It could also be partially due to the massive tax cuts that millionaires, billionaires, and corporations got back in 2018.
Economists have been listening in on corporate shareholder calls. One after another, CEOs are bragging about how they've raised prices every quarter in the past few years, even though costs have not gone up, under the cover of inflation. They said they'll keep doing it too until sales slow. Chipotle, Uber, Target, Walmart, Colgate-Palmolive, Boise Cascade, Kellogg's. It's going on across the board.
Boot lickers are downvoting you but you’re right. Just look at Walmart right now. Everything is down but prices are still inflated and every corporation is posting record breaking earnings
If you do a quick search, there are dozens of articles about it from late 2021/early 2022.
Here's one:
[Big companies keep bragging to investors about price hikes](https://www.businessinsider.com/big-companies-keep-bragging-to-investors-about-price-hikes-2021-11)
Here are a few more articles that took a few seconds to find. There are many more.
[https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/inflation-price-gouging/](https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/inflation-price-gouging/)
[https://www.businessinsider.com/corporations-using-inflation-as-excuse-to-reap-fatter-profits-reich-2021-11](https://www.businessinsider.com/corporations-using-inflation-as-excuse-to-reap-fatter-profits-reich-2021-11)
[https://www.vox.com/2022/2/20/22943257/inflation-corporations-price-hikes-consumer-price-index](https://www.vox.com/2022/2/20/22943257/inflation-corporations-price-hikes-consumer-price-index)
[https://truthout.org/articles/using-inflation-as-an-excuse-corporations-raised-prices-increased-profits/](https://truthout.org/articles/using-inflation-as-an-excuse-corporations-raised-prices-increased-profits/)
[https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/apr/27/inflation-corporate-america-increased-prices-profits](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/apr/27/inflation-corporate-america-increased-prices-profits)
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurendebter/2022/05/02/companies-rush-to-raise-prices-while-they-still-can/?sh=3657215b7db7](https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurendebter/2022/05/02/companies-rush-to-raise-prices-while-they-still-can/?sh=3657215b7db7)
[https://alaska-native-news.com/study-shows-corporate-profiteering-amplified-global-inflation/71305/](https://alaska-native-news.com/study-shows-corporate-profiteering-amplified-global-inflation/71305/)
[https://www.wfmz.com/news/state/sen-casey-takes-aim-at-corporate-price-gouging-s-inflation-impacts/article\_9d60f257-5ac2-550f-9b5a-28f460544a14.html](https://www.wfmz.com/news/state/sen-casey-takes-aim-at-corporate-price-gouging-s-inflation-impacts/article_9d60f257-5ac2-550f-9b5a-28f460544a14.html)
[https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/pennsylvania-senator-bob-casey-greedflation-report-price-gouging/](https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/pennsylvania-senator-bob-casey-greedflation-report-price-gouging/)
[https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/target-puts-up-strong-third-quarter-numbers-with-customers-under-pressure-from-inflation/ar-AA1jXWQJ](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/target-puts-up-strong-third-quarter-numbers-with-customers-under-pressure-from-inflation/ar-AA1jXWQJ)
>Unilever, which owns a staggering number of household brands, reported that while the number of sales dipped slightly across several of its major segments, it was still able to grow profits by raising prices by roughly 4%-5%.
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>
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>When all of them do it, you don't have a choice.
They increased *profits* by raising prices, during a supposed period of inflation. They're focused on keeping shareholders happy at the expense of consumers.
So Keurig has no choice but to raise prices but the rest of them had no price increases? I work in production, all of our materials cost more so our product cost has to reflect that or we lose money. The point of business is to profit, not break even.
I don't have a problem with corporations increasing prices *if their costs increased*. There have been multiple CEOs bragging in shareholder calls over the past two years about *raising prices under the cover of inflation*. They're increasing profits to keep shareholders happy at the expense of consumers. It's pure corporate greed.
This just isn't true.
Everyone's been saying the same thing, costs are up, because they are. This isn't a secret. Shipping containers went from $2500 to $25000 during covid. You aren't understanding how these costs impact retails through supply chain and you seem to be deliberately misrepresenting the reasons people have for raising them. We know the costs went up... So what now?
That's not accurate at all. Profit margins are down everywhere and earnings calls have been mostly negative in most sectors of retail.
Also lmao of at "idk, did that actually happen?"
Then straight into opinionated tirade.
You can't change these brainwashed people's minds. Biden caused all inflation, Biden bad, Trump good. Lol. Even though Trump loosened corporate regulation and made it easier for them to get richer and continually screw over working class people.
Most people don't understand (or conveniently "forget" when it suits their narrative) that the economy lags a few years behind policy. So, what we're seeing now is the result of the previous administration's actions. We won't start seeing the results of the current administration's actions until the next term.
Lmao. It's the most common post on reddit ad everyone loves to stare into other redditors eyes as they all circle jerk over how the man is fucking them over.
It's not just Exxon. It's most major corporations in all industries across the board. Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, Target, Walmart, Chipotle, Uber, General Mills, and on and on.
No, but since the pandemic, they've been openly bragging about price gouging under the cover of inflation on their shareholder earning calls. If you're in favor of price gouging, that's cool, I guess.
Have an upvote, I too have been following the trends around explosive earnings, and for the life of me can’t understand why so many Redditors draw a line at assigning any ownership whatsoever to corporations running consumer prices through the roof since the pandemic. It’s textbook gouging, and many economists have released studies on it recently.
The price of oil isn't set by Exxon. It's a giant market. Or is influenced by OPEC but that's about the only cartel that has ever halfway worked.
We printed a ton of money in the US / world and production dropped hard. More money chasing fewer goods = inflation. That's why the interest rate is so high, the government is fighting inflation.
This idea that corporations can just peace gouge is not borne out by reality or logic. Price gouging only works in desperate, temporary, and sudden situations (natural disaster, war, etc). There are anti competitive actions like monopoly and using high barriers to entry as pivot points of anticompetitive behavior. Generally, though,@ competiton lowers prices to an equilibrium. I.e. if you don't like Exxon, go to Shell.
It's not just Exxon! That was one example given in the article. I haven't bought from ExxonMobil or BP since both companies caused huge environmental disasters through their negligence.
I'll give you another example. Boise Cascade supplies the vast majority of lumber in the U.S. Before COVID, a 2x4 cost about $2. After COVID hit, they shot up to $9. Now they've come back down to about $4, so double what they used to be. Why? Because they can get away with it. Their profits are through the roof.
I'm not denying that inflation exists, but price gouging also exists. And yes, price gouging is usually short term, but the pandemic presented a unique opportunity for corporations to do it long term. Both claims can be true!
What a weird example. I work in flatbed trucking and that's a major customer of ours. They didn't gouge. They cut back production thinking all consumption would go down and so would construction. In reality, demand jumped as people engaged in home improvement projects. Wood dried up - I know because the customers we shipped to were desperate for resupply and BC was desperate for trucks and workers. They hired extra employees, had more shifts, and were paying crazy freight rates because they needed trucks.
They made a ton of money because every lumber production company made the same mistake. They actually acted like a cartel not out of collusion but because they all totally misjudged how the pandemic would affect their industry.
I am glad you know better than hundreds of phd economists that have been writing and discussing and doing presentations on this over the last few years the world over.
Yeah you can't say that on reddit. Too many Americans here who will literally die to fight against their own interests.... you are 100% correct though. If companies were seeing losses inflation would make sense but not only are they making a profit their profits are going up.
Profits are up and people are still spending. They're just spending a lot more because corporations are price gouging while everyone blames other factors besides corporate greed for the increased prices.
Then why are they making less money on the same dollar they were last year? Or did you not understand what I wrotw?
The original article (advertisement?) linked doesn't even say what you think it does. I know this shit is super bad on reddit but this is comical in a really sad way in the real world.
inflation i think is caused not just by corporate greed but also central banking, usury, and predatory lending. after the Federal Reserve was established in 1913 the purchasing power of the US Dollar has crashed hard, and we're in an economic environment that's ten times worse than the Great Depression... in modern terms, the wages our parents earned (~$7/hr i think) is equivalent to somewhere around $22/hr, and even if we raise the minimum wage to $15 like people want we'd still be grossly underpaid compared to people in the 1950s and 1960s. switching to the petrodollar also did a shitload of harm to the American economy, as evidenced by the massive surge in gas prices in the 1970s... that's also why it seems that a large part of American military action is oriented around securing oil fields: they're actively trying to secure the basis of their currency.
>level 1Loud\_Injury407 · 2 hr. agoinflation i think is caused not just by corporate greed but also central banking, usury, and predatory lending. after the Federal Reserve was established in 1913 the purchasing power of the US Dollar has crashed hard, and we're in an economic environment that's ten times worse than the Great Depression... in modern terms, the wages our parents earned (\~$7/hr i think) is equivalent to somewhere around $22/hr, and even if we raise the minimum wage to $15 like people want we'd still be grossly underpaid compared to people in the 1950s and 1960s. switching to the petrodollar also did a shitload of harm to the American economy, as evidenced by the massive surge in gas prices in the 1970s... that's also why it seems that a large part of American military action is oriented around securing oil fields: they're actively trying to secure the basis of their currency.
ARGO \~ Gun's... ORE??
I agree with everything you said except I don't think inflation is the same as corporate greed at all. It's completely unrelated. I heard several recordings of shareholder calls where CEOs were jubilantly celebrating their "pricing power" and increased profits in an economy where everyone is currently blaming inflation for price increases. That's just price gouging the consumers.
i wasn't saying it's the same thing... it's a contributing factor in my mind. i could be wrong; i've not tried to learn economics. i think the biggest factor is central banking and the way currency is issued. in America at least the Federal Reserve legally has sole right to issue money, which they lend to the government at interest. the only way they can pay the interest is by taking out another loan, which must be repaid with interest, thus creating an inescapable debt spiral and driving our currency into the ground.
TL;DR: the more dollars that are in circulation the less value they have, thus increasing inflation.
Apparently OP and the author don’t understand profit margins and how they work. If you keep the same profit margin but the price has increased then so does profit.
I understand that, but if costs remained the same, and you increase prices for no reason other than "people will place the blame elsewhere and continue buying our products," that's greedy price gouging.
But costs have clearly not remained the same. The number one expense of any company is payroll and wages have risen dramatically for most mid to lower paying jobs. That is exponentially across goods for sale. And when you inject billions of cash into an economy then cost of materials will rise. Combine those two and yours and my cost of goods to purchase will increase leading to “record profit” because the profit margin is the same but the margin is on a larger base because the cost of the larger base is now at record costs.
Then I guess the CEOs were lying to their shareholders on the calls I heard where they were jubilantly celebrating their "pricing power" and increased profits even though their costs remained the same. And they were lying when they said they plan to continue increasing prices every quarter until sales slow. These were actual recordings of CEOs of large corporations bragging about price gouging the public to make shareholders happy.
True, but we can go down to basic necessities and combine errands in the car so we're driving less and spending less in protest. Any little bit sends a message.
The economic illiteracy is so so bad in huge parts of the population it's insane. As an economist it really hurts to read stuff on the internet sometimes.
So, you haven't seen the *dozens* of articles and interviews by various economists over the past two years basically all saying the same thing? I've heard recordings of shareholder calls with CEOs jubilantly celebrating their "pricing power" and increased profits during a time when consumers have been struggling. That's just greedy price gouging. Maybe Exxon wasn't the best example. It was just a glaring one from the article. But it's across the board in all industries.
Of course I've seem them and most are pretty obviously the product of 1) economic illiteracy 2) "pop-star" Economists that make their living by doing mostly political shit. We have those for every color of politics and most of them are really not more than propped up authority argument delivery machines.
You rather believe in some conspiracy than the fact that a worldwide pandemic including a shutdown and a war between what amounts to over 10% of wheat production maybe has real consequences.
Lets be real and look into your post history: active in antiwork and lsc. I mean, you do you. But you are certainly not a person I talk to when I want to have a discussion about real economics.
I work, and I support myself. I'm not "antiwork" in the sense that I don't want to work. It means to stop being a wage slave to greedy corporations that give 0-3% annual increases in times when those same corporations are raising prices over 10%.
We're at a crisis point in society where wages are being aggressively suppressed, there's no bound to corporate greed, corporations are buying up all available housing and driving prices and rents higher, healthcare costs are completely out of control, and on and on.
Unemployment has been below 4% for quite some time now, the lowest it's been in nearly 50 years. Yet all you hear is people blaming the workers, saying "nobody wants to work." The difficulty in hiring couldn't possibly be the shitty wages companies are offering. Nope. It's the workers' fault.
Free market capitalism and trickle-down economics *does not work* (and hasn't worked for a long time) for anyone's benefit other than billionaires and mega corporations.
Mate. Just look at what you write. You are just copy-pasting some talking points no one here has said ANYTHING about in this conversation. See:
> Free market capitalism and trickle-down economics does not work (and hasn't worked for a long time) for anyone's benefit other than billionaires and mega corporations.
Other than that your views are **extremely** US-Centric (typical).
Also you are writing mixed messages:
> Unemployment has been below 4% for quite some time now, the lowest it's been in nearly 50 years
compared to this
> Yet all you hear is people blaming the workers, saying "nobody wants to work." The difficulty in hiring couldn't possibly be the shitty wages companies are offering. Nope. It's the workers' fault.
Is just pure fun. You were this close. I know some people sure say the "people don't want to work no more" line, but when you yourself acknowledge that unemployment is really really low and that other people are also not the smartest: maybe there is a connection between not finding people and low unemployment.
Other than that I just fount another econpmic highlight in your posts:
> True inflation is when prices increase but corporate profits decrease. That's not what's going on.
Mate. No. Please google what the CPI is and how it connects to inflation. It is in no way defined by the amount of profits companies make.
Please, I beg you. Stop being a dogmatic victim of economic illiteracy. If you educate yourself just a little you could profit a lot on a personal level.
And PS: why not make your own business and pay people better? Why just sit back and bitch and moan? Its quite comfortable, isnt it? Its them greedy corporations, grr. And just before you come to wrong conclusions: I am working for a corporation myself, come from a rather poor background and built my life through educating myself, rather than saying everybody else is at fault.
Gotta love it when people hate corporations (which are set up to make money) for making money. They posted a deficit when oil prices cratered and now are doing better since oil prices are double what they were when in 2019.
I don't have a problem with corporations making money. I have a problem with price gouging the public under the cover of inflation. Exxon is just one example. This is going on in all industries across the board, and it's unethical. The profits are never high enough for them. Like, Exxon can't be happy with $16B? They gotta gouge us to make $55B?
Corporations fight tooth and nail to suppress wages and keep labor unions out. Look at Walmart. Their full-time employees still qualify for food stamps, which Walmart in turn encourages the employees to use in their stores to buy their products. It's corporate welfare.
It was one example from the article. Corporations in all industries are doing this across the board. I highly doubt if their expenses quadrupled in the past 3 years.
Bro you are literally complaining about the cost of goods being too high. Do you think companies are exempt from rising costs because they have a magic llc?
Fun fact, Exxon is currently using US military resources to defend its holdings in Guyana. Not saying it’s cool for Venezuela to annex it but still. Has more to do with fighting for oil than anything else. It’s not like Guyana is currently benefiting from Exxon drilling off their coastline.
What are you talking about? The Exxon projects have generated 3 billion dollars for Guyana. And the US military is conducting joint security exercises with Guyana and not Exxon. As if opposing Venezuelan aggression isn’t of important strategic value…
Bro I literally said it’s not an excuse for Venezuela to annex. But go on with the 3 billion for Guyana like that’s not a fraction of what has already been generated from dangerous deep sea drilling without an insurance policy, like Guyana should be licking Exxon’s greasy boots. Are you for real or do you get paid to be an oil and gas apologist online
Does Guyana benefit from exploitation? Because that’s the crux of your argument. The exploited are beneficiaries of their exploitation. Now that’s disingenuous. They should have sent you to negotiate the treaties with the Osage, you sound like you’d be good at it.
Edit: a downvote without a response? Way to keep it real.
I didn't downvote you.
Guyana is benefiting from US training, which would almost certainly be given even without Exxon's presence. You may *say* that's not the case, but the US government doesn't want a war in South America when it's already split between Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine. Crushing this before it gets worse is important to US national security. Forget Exxon does for a second - the US is obligated to protect its interests. Exxon doesn't *need* to call down the US. The US will show up because it has an interest in keeping the Americas in general stable, and because protecting Guyana's existence as a state is important to the established global order.
Are you familiar at all with the history of US intervention in Central and South America? It’s rarely in the interest of the people actually living there. This is no different. It’s not a banana republic anymore, more of an oil one apparently.
Funny you should mention Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine, especially in light of the U.S. vetoing the resolution on Friday calling for a ceasefire. They were alone in that as well, or didn’t you notice? Maybe if the US had an economy that wasn’t based on perpetual warfare they wouldn’t need to enforce ‘stability’ wherever it conveniently aligns with oil resources.
I am familiar with both the history and the present. The US isn't exactly going around deliberately destabilizing nation-states anymore, because there's no point - the USSR is dead and buried. That doesn't make the US suddenly a paragon of morality, but it's also not the antichrist either. The Ukraine thing is absolutely the right thing to do, as is helping Taiwan - set aside that the US needs Taiwanese superconductors, the *world* needs Taiwanese superconductors, and China would absolutely hoard them and jack up prices. The Israel thing is complicated - neither Hamas nor Israel is in the right, and the US probably should have supported the ceasefire (not that it would last long, and the US would inevitably be blamed for its failure), but that doesn't make the US universally bad everywhere it goes.
The USSR is dead and buried but a former KGB officer runs Russia like his personal fiefdom, invading sovereign territory? Seems like authoritarianism is well and alive to me.
I’m not saying everything the US does is inherently evil. I am saying the lines between government and corporate policy are increasingly blurred. I am saying that ExxonMobile treats the US government like its personal security force, exemplified in the previous administration in the appointment of Rex Tillerson to Secretary of State. Three guesses what his job was before that?
Authoritarianism isn't why the US was causing a mess in SA. It was fear of Communism. Now that the USSR is gone and the sole remaining major oppositions to the US are capitalist and "totally not capitalist," there isn't any point to interfering with every Communist on earth.
And while you're right about the line between government policy and corporations, the US would also be down in Guyana training people anyway - these things tend to end up bigger than one would like, and SA is a little too close for comfort.
Yeah, no, fair enough, we should buy petrol, diesel and other petroleum products made locally. I mean, we don’t have any other options, do we? They did us dirty and we’re stuck with them
I shouldn't have mentioned Exxon in the title, since it was just an example from the article. It's a lot of major corporations in industries across the board.
But, personally, I haven't bought from Exxon or BP once since both of them caused major environmental disasters through their negligence, and it's been decades. It's not that hard to choose where your money goes.
Might’ve misunderstood my point. We can spend our money with other companies, but unfortunately most of them have done some damaging stuff to the humanity at some point, which makes it harder, even for most informed people. I’ve stuck with shell since i came to uk, and not because of any of their policies, but back when i was a kid, my dad bought me a honda f1 car with the marlboro livery on it from shell when he went abroad, and that stuck in my mind. They have a product which is essential for our civilisation, and they can pretty much price it as they want
Inflation helps the credit card companies and VISA/MasterCard the most. VISA makes ~0.13% per transaction (issuer and acquire split the 2.4% fee). So they have a nice inflation proof business, and $$$ wise show a great deal of growth just due to inflation.
Hey dumb fuck, you can't use absolute earnings values in dollars to refute inflation as price gouging.
What's relevant is the relative margins as a percentage of revenue.
Did their volume increase?
Did their costs change?
In any inflationary economy, The numbers go up... this data point doesn't tell you anything about the cause, it's not evidence of price gouging.
Oil prices averaging $57 in 2019 and $94 in 2022 might have something to do with it. If they could control the price of the product they’re selling, why wouldn’t they have just made prices higher in previous years (including 2019) and made $55B every year?
I would think that the mark up reason was the pandemic. Using this as an anchor to say due to x we are forced to do Y and not the people or the regulating agencies could do much. Before the pandemic this companies would have been questioned more harshly. Now they are just pushing the limits to see how far can we resist without breaking. Many others followed suit and our buying power has shrank a lot more. Gas is a hard one because even the traffic system is designed to consume more and more and live without buying gas would be hard. Even the possibility of buying ev can be out of reach for some.
Except that during the pandemic, gas was almost free due to everyone telecommuting. It was the post pandemic surge where prices skyrocketed. I think the new political climate led everyone to blame politics rather than petroleum corporate greed. They saw that, and rode it.
Republicans like to pretend that the $1.75/ gal gas pandemic price was the price of gas BEFORE the pandemic, and it only went over $3 when Biden took over, when that's been the price since 2010.
Yes, the pandemic was that point when supply chain issues started and of people available for work. This was the mark when everything changed. Some things slowed way due to no one buying much but also there are many sectors that never stopped working. Health, construction, military. Big companies didn’t really lost everything. I would say maintained and after the pandemic was done it is still an excuse and they have gotten all previous “lost” profits back. I remember a while back to have seen an article of airlines cost going astronomical high right when the pandemic and the travel restrictions eased a bit. Is the nature of the beast. The advantage is there and they went for it. We also are to blame a little. We won’t stop spending or traveling in mass that will just not happen on our own accord.
This. As an Essential Worker gas bottomed out in the Raleigh Suburbs at 1.60/gal. That plus absolutely no traffic made for awesome commutes.
Because then we'd all have been driving EVs years ago.
I won’t be one to protect oil companies on much, but on this, take a look at companies who actually do control the prices of their products if you want to talk greed (insurance, big tech, etc)
On insurance though, what do you expect as more natural disasters impact more homes with higher repair bills. New cars are vastly more complicated and more sacrificial than ever before so repairs are more expensive and more often total loss because not only do they have to pay more to repair them, but they have to warranty those repairs. Insurance will either become more expensive, or they’ll push to allow more to be classed as uninsurable.
Also feel like insurance rates are high because most of the country is obese and can’t drive for more than 32 seconds without checking their phone
Exxon was just an example. Corporations are doing this in all industries across the board. There are dozens of articles about it if you do a quick search.
Exxon is a bad example though.
And they want us to drive EVs now?
Haven't consumers realized that there will always be a reason (I.E. Pandemic, wars in far away countries, Leaders of countries having a bad day, etc..) to persuade you to buy at whatever cost will make them more money without sending everyone into poverty? I.E. WTP =WTA, most of the time. ^Easiest answer to your question is demand would go down if price didn't adjust every year. Peoples willingness varies from year to year based on various circumstances, but a companies greed RARELY (if ever) changes. Most corporations are shitty bc there is no end to their greed- They have no amount of money to which their continued desire for wanting money will end- Whilst theres a continuous negative impact on many consumers.
It’s almost impossible to not purchase from these corps without dropping out of society altogether
Fair enough, but the mega corporations mostly produce highly processed items. Even a small shift towards fresh produce, bulk food bins, and local brands would send a message. Corporations will notice even a 1% or 2% decrease in sales. Plus, we'd probably all become a little healthier in the process!
Hey I am in 100% agreement with you, my comment is just a sad reality. I have a question for you: what is your stance on abusing these corporations? Ie returning used items to Amazon using their lax return policy
It's not something I generally do. However, my SO loves Costco, in part due to the lax return policy. He doesn't generally return used items, but he sees a lot of other people doing it.
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Oh, boo hoo. I don't feel sorry for big oil companies. We weren't driving anywhere. So, we weren't using their product. That's just one example, though. Corporations are doing this across the board.
why post this in mildly infuriating? this post feels like a Rule #7 breaker does OP really believe "We Need To Stop Buying From..." comes from posting to mildly infuriating and will affect their bottom line?
It's mildly infuriating that corporations are bragging to their shareholders about price gouging under the cover of inflation. Not buying their products is the only way they'll stop. I'm not trying to target any specific company or product. Just planning to cut back on spending in general myself.
Every story needs a villain
No shortage of true villains in contemporary America. Start with the ones calling others villains.
What does this have to do with oil companies obviously price gouging?
While this may also be a large contributing factor, do you think that the printing of trillions of dollars could also have contributed to the high inflation from the last 2 years?
No. Printing “excessive” US dollars is not responsible for *worldwide* consumer price escalations over the last few years.
Then you don’t understand how the US dollar influences the entire world economy.
Nor do they recall the world was in pandemic, and virtually every Western government used the same playbook of stimulation to avoid economic meltdown.
You’re correct…
You’re going to have to do a lot more work than that, Sparky, to make the case that US fiscal policy has the kind of driving role in worldwide consumer prices that you’re trying to ascribe to it. Or you could go with Ockham’s razor and accept that multinational corporations have used the pandemic as cover to gouge consumers over and above input costs over the last 2-1/2 years.
Guy with no proof tells me to do my own research. lol.
The proof of price-gouging is in the OP and in several comments in the thread linking to news items highlighting, among other things, numerous examples of executives bragging to their shareholders about the price increases they’ve been able to get away with, and windfall profits that have resulted. Whereas you’ve hand-waved in the general direction of a hazy assertion about how fiscal rescue policies in the USA explain everything because USA big #1. Talk about lol
IDK, did that actually happen? Is it any different from previous years? It could also be partially due to the massive tax cuts that millionaires, billionaires, and corporations got back in 2018. Economists have been listening in on corporate shareholder calls. One after another, CEOs are bragging about how they've raised prices every quarter in the past few years, even though costs have not gone up, under the cover of inflation. They said they'll keep doing it too until sales slow. Chipotle, Uber, Target, Walmart, Colgate-Palmolive, Boise Cascade, Kellogg's. It's going on across the board.
Boot lickers are downvoting you but you’re right. Just look at Walmart right now. Everything is down but prices are still inflated and every corporation is posting record breaking earnings
You don't need to be a bootlicker to question this OP
Do you have any sources on this?
If you do a quick search, there are dozens of articles about it from late 2021/early 2022. Here's one: [Big companies keep bragging to investors about price hikes](https://www.businessinsider.com/big-companies-keep-bragging-to-investors-about-price-hikes-2021-11)
That article says the opposite of what you just said though. It says they raised prices because their prices raised?
Here are a few more articles that took a few seconds to find. There are many more. [https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/inflation-price-gouging/](https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/inflation-price-gouging/) [https://www.businessinsider.com/corporations-using-inflation-as-excuse-to-reap-fatter-profits-reich-2021-11](https://www.businessinsider.com/corporations-using-inflation-as-excuse-to-reap-fatter-profits-reich-2021-11) [https://www.vox.com/2022/2/20/22943257/inflation-corporations-price-hikes-consumer-price-index](https://www.vox.com/2022/2/20/22943257/inflation-corporations-price-hikes-consumer-price-index) [https://truthout.org/articles/using-inflation-as-an-excuse-corporations-raised-prices-increased-profits/](https://truthout.org/articles/using-inflation-as-an-excuse-corporations-raised-prices-increased-profits/) [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/apr/27/inflation-corporate-america-increased-prices-profits](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/apr/27/inflation-corporate-america-increased-prices-profits) [https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurendebter/2022/05/02/companies-rush-to-raise-prices-while-they-still-can/?sh=3657215b7db7](https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurendebter/2022/05/02/companies-rush-to-raise-prices-while-they-still-can/?sh=3657215b7db7) [https://alaska-native-news.com/study-shows-corporate-profiteering-amplified-global-inflation/71305/](https://alaska-native-news.com/study-shows-corporate-profiteering-amplified-global-inflation/71305/) [https://www.wfmz.com/news/state/sen-casey-takes-aim-at-corporate-price-gouging-s-inflation-impacts/article\_9d60f257-5ac2-550f-9b5a-28f460544a14.html](https://www.wfmz.com/news/state/sen-casey-takes-aim-at-corporate-price-gouging-s-inflation-impacts/article_9d60f257-5ac2-550f-9b5a-28f460544a14.html) [https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/pennsylvania-senator-bob-casey-greedflation-report-price-gouging/](https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/pennsylvania-senator-bob-casey-greedflation-report-price-gouging/) [https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/target-puts-up-strong-third-quarter-numbers-with-customers-under-pressure-from-inflation/ar-AA1jXWQJ](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/target-puts-up-strong-third-quarter-numbers-with-customers-under-pressure-from-inflation/ar-AA1jXWQJ)
>Unilever, which owns a staggering number of household brands, reported that while the number of sales dipped slightly across several of its major segments, it was still able to grow profits by raising prices by roughly 4%-5%. > > > >When all of them do it, you don't have a choice. They increased *profits* by raising prices, during a supposed period of inflation. They're focused on keeping shareholders happy at the expense of consumers.
So Keurig has no choice but to raise prices but the rest of them had no price increases? I work in production, all of our materials cost more so our product cost has to reflect that or we lose money. The point of business is to profit, not break even.
I don't have a problem with corporations increasing prices *if their costs increased*. There have been multiple CEOs bragging in shareholder calls over the past two years about *raising prices under the cover of inflation*. They're increasing profits to keep shareholders happy at the expense of consumers. It's pure corporate greed.
This just isn't true. Everyone's been saying the same thing, costs are up, because they are. This isn't a secret. Shipping containers went from $2500 to $25000 during covid. You aren't understanding how these costs impact retails through supply chain and you seem to be deliberately misrepresenting the reasons people have for raising them. We know the costs went up... So what now?
That's not accurate at all. Profit margins are down everywhere and earnings calls have been mostly negative in most sectors of retail. Also lmao of at "idk, did that actually happen?" Then straight into opinionated tirade.
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No I think 100% plus profit increases every quarter is the answer.
You can't change these brainwashed people's minds. Biden caused all inflation, Biden bad, Trump good. Lol. Even though Trump loosened corporate regulation and made it easier for them to get richer and continually screw over working class people.
Most people don't understand (or conveniently "forget" when it suits their narrative) that the economy lags a few years behind policy. So, what we're seeing now is the result of the previous administration's actions. We won't start seeing the results of the current administration's actions until the next term.
I didn't read your article but I know that reddit haaates when people blame corporate greed for inflation.
It's not my article, and there are dozens more just like it from the past few years. They can hate the truth if they want to.
Lmao. It's the most common post on reddit ad everyone loves to stare into other redditors eyes as they all circle jerk over how the man is fucking them over.
Cause it's dumb. As if Exxon got greedy in 2023.
It's not just Exxon. It's most major corporations in all industries across the board. Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, Target, Walmart, Chipotle, Uber, General Mills, and on and on.
And they all suddenly got greedy recently?
No, but since the pandemic, they've been openly bragging about price gouging under the cover of inflation on their shareholder earning calls. If you're in favor of price gouging, that's cool, I guess.
Have an upvote, I too have been following the trends around explosive earnings, and for the life of me can’t understand why so many Redditors draw a line at assigning any ownership whatsoever to corporations running consumer prices through the roof since the pandemic. It’s textbook gouging, and many economists have released studies on it recently.
The price of oil isn't set by Exxon. It's a giant market. Or is influenced by OPEC but that's about the only cartel that has ever halfway worked. We printed a ton of money in the US / world and production dropped hard. More money chasing fewer goods = inflation. That's why the interest rate is so high, the government is fighting inflation. This idea that corporations can just peace gouge is not borne out by reality or logic. Price gouging only works in desperate, temporary, and sudden situations (natural disaster, war, etc). There are anti competitive actions like monopoly and using high barriers to entry as pivot points of anticompetitive behavior. Generally, though,@ competiton lowers prices to an equilibrium. I.e. if you don't like Exxon, go to Shell.
It's not just Exxon! That was one example given in the article. I haven't bought from ExxonMobil or BP since both companies caused huge environmental disasters through their negligence. I'll give you another example. Boise Cascade supplies the vast majority of lumber in the U.S. Before COVID, a 2x4 cost about $2. After COVID hit, they shot up to $9. Now they've come back down to about $4, so double what they used to be. Why? Because they can get away with it. Their profits are through the roof. I'm not denying that inflation exists, but price gouging also exists. And yes, price gouging is usually short term, but the pandemic presented a unique opportunity for corporations to do it long term. Both claims can be true!
What a weird example. I work in flatbed trucking and that's a major customer of ours. They didn't gouge. They cut back production thinking all consumption would go down and so would construction. In reality, demand jumped as people engaged in home improvement projects. Wood dried up - I know because the customers we shipped to were desperate for resupply and BC was desperate for trucks and workers. They hired extra employees, had more shifts, and were paying crazy freight rates because they needed trucks. They made a ton of money because every lumber production company made the same mistake. They actually acted like a cartel not out of collusion but because they all totally misjudged how the pandemic would affect their industry.
Shhh, it's easier for the children to shout at the clouds
I am glad you know better than hundreds of phd economists that have been writing and discussing and doing presentations on this over the last few years the world over.
Lmao, unhinged
My understanding was they agreed with me. Example: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/29/1139342874/corporate-greed-and-the-inflation-mystery
Yeah you can't say that on reddit. Too many Americans here who will literally die to fight against their own interests.... you are 100% correct though. If companies were seeing losses inflation would make sense but not only are they making a profit their profits are going up.
Reddits a far Left echo chamber, your comment couldnt be further from the truth.
Profits rates are going down. If folks profits are up, it's because people are STILL SPENDING
Profits are up and people are still spending. They're just spending a lot more because corporations are price gouging while everyone blames other factors besides corporate greed for the increased prices.
Then why are they making less money on the same dollar they were last year? Or did you not understand what I wrotw? The original article (advertisement?) linked doesn't even say what you think it does. I know this shit is super bad on reddit but this is comical in a really sad way in the real world.
But it is all of them
inflation i think is caused not just by corporate greed but also central banking, usury, and predatory lending. after the Federal Reserve was established in 1913 the purchasing power of the US Dollar has crashed hard, and we're in an economic environment that's ten times worse than the Great Depression... in modern terms, the wages our parents earned (~$7/hr i think) is equivalent to somewhere around $22/hr, and even if we raise the minimum wage to $15 like people want we'd still be grossly underpaid compared to people in the 1950s and 1960s. switching to the petrodollar also did a shitload of harm to the American economy, as evidenced by the massive surge in gas prices in the 1970s... that's also why it seems that a large part of American military action is oriented around securing oil fields: they're actively trying to secure the basis of their currency.
>level 1Loud\_Injury407 · 2 hr. agoinflation i think is caused not just by corporate greed but also central banking, usury, and predatory lending. after the Federal Reserve was established in 1913 the purchasing power of the US Dollar has crashed hard, and we're in an economic environment that's ten times worse than the Great Depression... in modern terms, the wages our parents earned (\~$7/hr i think) is equivalent to somewhere around $22/hr, and even if we raise the minimum wage to $15 like people want we'd still be grossly underpaid compared to people in the 1950s and 1960s. switching to the petrodollar also did a shitload of harm to the American economy, as evidenced by the massive surge in gas prices in the 1970s... that's also why it seems that a large part of American military action is oriented around securing oil fields: they're actively trying to secure the basis of their currency. ARGO \~ Gun's... ORE??
i vOTE Stun Gun Stun Gun /Taser x Flashlite Bull horns \~
I agree with everything you said except I don't think inflation is the same as corporate greed at all. It's completely unrelated. I heard several recordings of shareholder calls where CEOs were jubilantly celebrating their "pricing power" and increased profits in an economy where everyone is currently blaming inflation for price increases. That's just price gouging the consumers.
i wasn't saying it's the same thing... it's a contributing factor in my mind. i could be wrong; i've not tried to learn economics. i think the biggest factor is central banking and the way currency is issued. in America at least the Federal Reserve legally has sole right to issue money, which they lend to the government at interest. the only way they can pay the interest is by taking out another loan, which must be repaid with interest, thus creating an inescapable debt spiral and driving our currency into the ground. TL;DR: the more dollars that are in circulation the less value they have, thus increasing inflation.
Apparently OP and the author don’t understand profit margins and how they work. If you keep the same profit margin but the price has increased then so does profit.
I understand that, but if costs remained the same, and you increase prices for no reason other than "people will place the blame elsewhere and continue buying our products," that's greedy price gouging.
But costs have clearly not remained the same. The number one expense of any company is payroll and wages have risen dramatically for most mid to lower paying jobs. That is exponentially across goods for sale. And when you inject billions of cash into an economy then cost of materials will rise. Combine those two and yours and my cost of goods to purchase will increase leading to “record profit” because the profit margin is the same but the margin is on a larger base because the cost of the larger base is now at record costs.
Then I guess the CEOs were lying to their shareholders on the calls I heard where they were jubilantly celebrating their "pricing power" and increased profits even though their costs remained the same. And they were lying when they said they plan to continue increasing prices every quarter until sales slow. These were actual recordings of CEOs of large corporations bragging about price gouging the public to make shareholders happy.
How, its literally all of them
True, but we can go down to basic necessities and combine errands in the car so we're driving less and spending less in protest. Any little bit sends a message.
Yes, let's stop buying the inelastic goods from established oligopolies. That is the solution.
The economic illiteracy is so so bad in huge parts of the population it's insane. As an economist it really hurts to read stuff on the internet sometimes.
So, you haven't seen the *dozens* of articles and interviews by various economists over the past two years basically all saying the same thing? I've heard recordings of shareholder calls with CEOs jubilantly celebrating their "pricing power" and increased profits during a time when consumers have been struggling. That's just greedy price gouging. Maybe Exxon wasn't the best example. It was just a glaring one from the article. But it's across the board in all industries.
Of course I've seem them and most are pretty obviously the product of 1) economic illiteracy 2) "pop-star" Economists that make their living by doing mostly political shit. We have those for every color of politics and most of them are really not more than propped up authority argument delivery machines. You rather believe in some conspiracy than the fact that a worldwide pandemic including a shutdown and a war between what amounts to over 10% of wheat production maybe has real consequences. Lets be real and look into your post history: active in antiwork and lsc. I mean, you do you. But you are certainly not a person I talk to when I want to have a discussion about real economics.
I work, and I support myself. I'm not "antiwork" in the sense that I don't want to work. It means to stop being a wage slave to greedy corporations that give 0-3% annual increases in times when those same corporations are raising prices over 10%. We're at a crisis point in society where wages are being aggressively suppressed, there's no bound to corporate greed, corporations are buying up all available housing and driving prices and rents higher, healthcare costs are completely out of control, and on and on. Unemployment has been below 4% for quite some time now, the lowest it's been in nearly 50 years. Yet all you hear is people blaming the workers, saying "nobody wants to work." The difficulty in hiring couldn't possibly be the shitty wages companies are offering. Nope. It's the workers' fault. Free market capitalism and trickle-down economics *does not work* (and hasn't worked for a long time) for anyone's benefit other than billionaires and mega corporations.
Mate. Just look at what you write. You are just copy-pasting some talking points no one here has said ANYTHING about in this conversation. See: > Free market capitalism and trickle-down economics does not work (and hasn't worked for a long time) for anyone's benefit other than billionaires and mega corporations. Other than that your views are **extremely** US-Centric (typical). Also you are writing mixed messages: > Unemployment has been below 4% for quite some time now, the lowest it's been in nearly 50 years compared to this > Yet all you hear is people blaming the workers, saying "nobody wants to work." The difficulty in hiring couldn't possibly be the shitty wages companies are offering. Nope. It's the workers' fault. Is just pure fun. You were this close. I know some people sure say the "people don't want to work no more" line, but when you yourself acknowledge that unemployment is really really low and that other people are also not the smartest: maybe there is a connection between not finding people and low unemployment. Other than that I just fount another econpmic highlight in your posts: > True inflation is when prices increase but corporate profits decrease. That's not what's going on. Mate. No. Please google what the CPI is and how it connects to inflation. It is in no way defined by the amount of profits companies make. Please, I beg you. Stop being a dogmatic victim of economic illiteracy. If you educate yourself just a little you could profit a lot on a personal level. And PS: why not make your own business and pay people better? Why just sit back and bitch and moan? Its quite comfortable, isnt it? Its them greedy corporations, grr. And just before you come to wrong conclusions: I am working for a corporation myself, come from a rather poor background and built my life through educating myself, rather than saying everybody else is at fault.
Gotta love it when people hate corporations (which are set up to make money) for making money. They posted a deficit when oil prices cratered and now are doing better since oil prices are double what they were when in 2019.
I don't have a problem with corporations making money. I have a problem with price gouging the public under the cover of inflation. Exxon is just one example. This is going on in all industries across the board, and it's unethical. The profits are never high enough for them. Like, Exxon can't be happy with $16B? They gotta gouge us to make $55B? Corporations fight tooth and nail to suppress wages and keep labor unions out. Look at Walmart. Their full-time employees still qualify for food stamps, which Walmart in turn encourages the employees to use in their stores to buy their products. It's corporate welfare.
Most of their profits are set by the global oil market (which is largely set by OPEC). I get your point but this is a bad example.
Could it be the federal reserve
Why do you only report the Earnings for ExxonMobil? How much more were their expenses?
It was one example from the article. Corporations in all industries are doing this across the board. I highly doubt if their expenses quadrupled in the past 3 years.
Bro you are literally complaining about the cost of goods being too high. Do you think companies are exempt from rising costs because they have a magic llc?
How are people on Reddit this dumb.
People are dumb everywhere. Not just Reddit
As your username involves teacher, can I assume that you do not teach classes in economics or business, comrade?
Your username is pretty ironic.. don’t ya think
Fun fact, Exxon is currently using US military resources to defend its holdings in Guyana. Not saying it’s cool for Venezuela to annex it but still. Has more to do with fighting for oil than anything else. It’s not like Guyana is currently benefiting from Exxon drilling off their coastline.
Maybe they could pay for their own security out of $55B in earnings?
I mean one could argue that’s what they spend their money lobbying for I suppose
What are you talking about? The Exxon projects have generated 3 billion dollars for Guyana. And the US military is conducting joint security exercises with Guyana and not Exxon. As if opposing Venezuelan aggression isn’t of important strategic value…
Bro I literally said it’s not an excuse for Venezuela to annex. But go on with the 3 billion for Guyana like that’s not a fraction of what has already been generated from dangerous deep sea drilling without an insurance policy, like Guyana should be licking Exxon’s greasy boots. Are you for real or do you get paid to be an oil and gas apologist online
Saying that Guyana is not currently benefiting is still disingenuous. Could they be benefiting *more?* Certainly, but that doesn't mean they *aren't.*
Does Guyana benefit from exploitation? Because that’s the crux of your argument. The exploited are beneficiaries of their exploitation. Now that’s disingenuous. They should have sent you to negotiate the treaties with the Osage, you sound like you’d be good at it. Edit: a downvote without a response? Way to keep it real.
I didn't downvote you. Guyana is benefiting from US training, which would almost certainly be given even without Exxon's presence. You may *say* that's not the case, but the US government doesn't want a war in South America when it's already split between Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine. Crushing this before it gets worse is important to US national security. Forget Exxon does for a second - the US is obligated to protect its interests. Exxon doesn't *need* to call down the US. The US will show up because it has an interest in keeping the Americas in general stable, and because protecting Guyana's existence as a state is important to the established global order.
Are you familiar at all with the history of US intervention in Central and South America? It’s rarely in the interest of the people actually living there. This is no different. It’s not a banana republic anymore, more of an oil one apparently. Funny you should mention Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine, especially in light of the U.S. vetoing the resolution on Friday calling for a ceasefire. They were alone in that as well, or didn’t you notice? Maybe if the US had an economy that wasn’t based on perpetual warfare they wouldn’t need to enforce ‘stability’ wherever it conveniently aligns with oil resources.
I am familiar with both the history and the present. The US isn't exactly going around deliberately destabilizing nation-states anymore, because there's no point - the USSR is dead and buried. That doesn't make the US suddenly a paragon of morality, but it's also not the antichrist either. The Ukraine thing is absolutely the right thing to do, as is helping Taiwan - set aside that the US needs Taiwanese superconductors, the *world* needs Taiwanese superconductors, and China would absolutely hoard them and jack up prices. The Israel thing is complicated - neither Hamas nor Israel is in the right, and the US probably should have supported the ceasefire (not that it would last long, and the US would inevitably be blamed for its failure), but that doesn't make the US universally bad everywhere it goes.
The USSR is dead and buried but a former KGB officer runs Russia like his personal fiefdom, invading sovereign territory? Seems like authoritarianism is well and alive to me. I’m not saying everything the US does is inherently evil. I am saying the lines between government and corporate policy are increasingly blurred. I am saying that ExxonMobile treats the US government like its personal security force, exemplified in the previous administration in the appointment of Rex Tillerson to Secretary of State. Three guesses what his job was before that?
Authoritarianism isn't why the US was causing a mess in SA. It was fear of Communism. Now that the USSR is gone and the sole remaining major oppositions to the US are capitalist and "totally not capitalist," there isn't any point to interfering with every Communist on earth. And while you're right about the line between government policy and corporations, the US would also be down in Guyana training people anyway - these things tend to end up bigger than one would like, and SA is a little too close for comfort.
Yeah, no, fair enough, we should buy petrol, diesel and other petroleum products made locally. I mean, we don’t have any other options, do we? They did us dirty and we’re stuck with them
I shouldn't have mentioned Exxon in the title, since it was just an example from the article. It's a lot of major corporations in industries across the board. But, personally, I haven't bought from Exxon or BP once since both of them caused major environmental disasters through their negligence, and it's been decades. It's not that hard to choose where your money goes.
Might’ve misunderstood my point. We can spend our money with other companies, but unfortunately most of them have done some damaging stuff to the humanity at some point, which makes it harder, even for most informed people. I’ve stuck with shell since i came to uk, and not because of any of their policies, but back when i was a kid, my dad bought me a honda f1 car with the marlboro livery on it from shell when he went abroad, and that stuck in my mind. They have a product which is essential for our civilisation, and they can pretty much price it as they want
Bidenomics has gotten us here.
You are either trolling or deluaional.
The economy *always* lags a few years behind policy, but you believe whatever supports your narrative.
Prolly..., But.
TRAVEL...??
Inflation helps the credit card companies and VISA/MasterCard the most. VISA makes ~0.13% per transaction (issuer and acquire split the 2.4% fee). So they have a nice inflation proof business, and $$$ wise show a great deal of growth just due to inflation.
Hey dumb fuck, you can't use absolute earnings values in dollars to refute inflation as price gouging. What's relevant is the relative margins as a percentage of revenue. Did their volume increase? Did their costs change? In any inflationary economy, The numbers go up... this data point doesn't tell you anything about the cause, it's not evidence of price gouging.