But inflation!!!!!

[Rexedgar]

Anyone objecting to price gouging laws hasn’t been paying enough attention.

Investors are going to make a killing with real time drive thru price discrimination.

I rarely eat fast food, if I use the drive-thru, I know what I want before I get to the menu.

 

[poweRob]

And that is low level bullshit. I said raising prices, not fixing prices (i.e., not collusion).

In many cases it's the same thing. You just don't care because a corporations is fixing prices.

 

[poweRob]

See post 31. I have backed up my assertion price gouging isn't behind the high food prices we see today. Where's the evidence backing your counterargument?

Right in the OP you must've not read.

 

[poweRob]

Bottom lines? You mean PROFIT?! OH. MY. GOD! SEND THEM TO JAIL!
View attachment 67528294

Another one for monopolies and price fixing/gouging.

 

[NatMorton]

In many cases it's the same thing. You just don't care because a corporations is fixing prices.

Dumb.

 

[highroller]

Dumb.

Sounds like he hit a nerve

 

[poweRob]

Dumb.

Weak.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Republicans will be happy. Bitterly complaining about inflation, a by-product of robust spending during prosperity and full employment, Republicans have been begging for a recession and deflation.

Good news for everyone except Republicans.

NBC reports, "Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell said Friday he expects the central bank will cut its key interest rate in the near future in response to slower economic growth and cooling inflation.

"At a speech during the Fed's annual August summit in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Powell said "the time has come for policy to adjust." His remarks come as price growth has slowed and the jobs market, as well as demand for borrowing money, has begun to soften to a weaker level than before the onset of the pandemic."

“Inflation has declined significantly," Powell said. "The labor market is no longer overheated, and conditions are now less tight than those that prevailed before the pandemic. Supply constraints have normalized. And the balance of the risks to our two mandates has changed.”

The stock market surged on the news. Following huge gains in the past few days, the Dow gained another 462 points.

 

[jpn]

Those who advocate for price controls don't want shortages, but shortages are what price controls produce.

Kamala Harris isn't advocating for price controls.
She's advocating for federal laws to stop price gouging and make markets competitive.
Prices are already being controlled in America by big corporations that have gobbled up markets and don't have to compete.

 

[NatMorton]

Kamala Harris isn't advocating for price controls.

Yes, she is. She's calling for price controls in grocery stores with absolutely no evidence of price gouging.

 

[jpn]

Yes, she is. She's calling for price controls in grocery stores with absolutely no evidence of price gouging.

You didn't look very hard, did you?

Former President Donald Trump is attacking Vice President Kamala Harris’ plan for a federal ban on price gouging by grocery stores and food suppliers as “Soviet-style” controls.​

But Republican state officials across the country have embraced the idea of capping excessive prices for years.​

GOP state attorneys general, as well as many of their Democratic counterparts, have moved to stop companies from charging what they view as exorbitant increases in the cost of some goods in certain circumstances.​

In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, sued a large egg supplier for raising prices by about 300 percent at the height of the pandemic lockdowns in 2020.​

​

I won't bore you with the countless examples of price-gouging in other industries.

 

[NatMorton]

You didn't look very hard, did you?

Former President Donald Trump is attacking Vice President Kamala Harris’ plan for a federal ban on price gouging by grocery stores and food suppliers as “Soviet-style” controls.​

But Republican state officials across the country have embraced the idea of capping excessive prices for years.​

GOP state attorneys general, as well as many of their Democratic counterparts, have moved to stop companies from charging what they view as exorbitant increases in the cost of some goods in certain circumstances.​

In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, sued a large egg supplier for raising prices by about 300 percent at the height of the pandemic lockdowns in 2020.​

​

I won't bore you with the countless examples of price-gouging in other industries.

I've looked at this a bit more deeply than have you. Please see post 31 in this thread, and tell me whether you see evidence of price gouging in the industry Harris targeted for her price controls.

 

[brianpatrick]

The only thing that fixes price gouging reliably is competition. Once a few companies have a monopoly, even just regionally they can collude to raise prices. Time to go monopoly busting. Welcome to capitalism.

 

[NatMorton]

The only thing that fixes price gouging reliably is competition. Once a few companies have a monopoly, even just regionally they can collude to raise prices. Time to go monopoly busting. Welcome to capitalism.

Capitalism isn’t about monopolies. That’s Socialism.

Monopolies can form in a market economy when the market is not properly regulated. State-run monopolies are the objective is a Socialist model.

 

[highroller]

Capitalism isn’t about monopolies. That’s Socialism.

Monopolies can form in a market economy when the market is not properly regulated. State-run monopolies are the objective is a Socialist model.

Thank you for providing clear evidence that you have no idea what you are talking about.

Your description of capitalism and socialism is wrong on both accounts.

 

[jpevans]

So many on the left really are children on this issue.

If the management of a business see an opportunity to increase profits by raising prices, they have a fiduciary obligation to ownership to do exactly that. To stamp your feet and argue it should be otherwise is an act of emotional immaturity.

So price gouging is just good business?

 

[NatMorton]

Thank you for providing clear evidence that you have no idea what you are talking about.

Your description of capitalism and socialism is wrong on both accounts.

No, they're quite accurate, and your gainsaying nonsense is not evidence to the contrary.

 

[NatMorton]

So price gouging is just good business?

Where legal, yes.

 

[jpevans]

Where legal, yes.

Well sure for a Picasso sketch or a Ty Cobb tobacco card but not for essential commodities especially foodstuffs. Ther should be in place some limit on increases, that don’t reflect increases in costs for the producers just because y’all can blame it on covid.
Let them eat cake is not a valid argument.

 

[NatMorton]

Well sure for a Picasso sketch or a Ty Cobb tobacco card but not for essential commodities especially foodstuffs. Ther should be in place some limit on increases, that don’t reflect increases in costs for the producers just because y’all can blame it on covid.
Let them eat cake is not a valid argument.

No, there should not be. It's granting government too much authority, which creates its own problems.

 

[jpevans]

No, there should not be. It's granting government too much authority, which creates its own problems.

Lack of regulation created the income inequality we now have.

 

[NatMorton]

Lack of regulation created the income inequality we now have.

You're presenting a strong case for a lack of regulation.

 

[brianpatrick]

Capitalism isn’t about monopolies. That’s Socialism.

Monopolies can form in a market economy when the market is not properly regulated. State-run monopolies are the objective is a Socialist model.

I disagree. Monopoly is the goal of any business, and the governments (the peoples) job is to regulate that raw goal.

I don’t see any socialists with any amount of power or sway in the US, so I don’t ever worry about that. I do see the potential for a hybrid system which already works in other places. In fact, this is already what we have. Some people want to call that “going socialist” for political reasons, but it’s not true.

 

[NatMorton]

I disagree. Monopoly is the goal of any business, and the governments (the peoples) job is to regulate that raw goal.

Agreed, 100% market share is certainly a goal, but markets with the right level of regulation don't let that happen. Competition is too strong a force.

I don’t see any socialists with any amount of power or sway in the US, so I don’t ever worry about that. I do see the potential for a hybrid system which already works in other places. In fact, this is already what we have. Some people want to call that “going socialist” for political reasons, but it’s not true.

We're not discussing what power Socialists have or don't have in the US. We're discussing Socialism's economic structure, and that is, for the most part, state-run monopolies for every industry of consequence.

 

[The AntiDonald]

What could be more transparent to consumers than a higher price?


Please explain why you believe a price increase is an act of fraud.

When major food producers collude with one another to increase prices all at the same time to create an illusion that market forces are causing the rise.

We have evidence that this is exactly what they have done. It's not their job to make their investors rich while starving the poor.