Can Corporate Greed Really Explain Inflation?

[ExtinctionLife]

Record corporate profits make it pretty obvious, no? Welcome to the United Corporations of America.

[blubastud]

Don't worry people, the guy from Bloomberg says it's not corporate greed...I swear this stuff writes itself. I felt a bad take coming in from her tone of voice, this is running interference for corporate interest

[jedibane]

I’m not sure this was Atlantic’s best work

[mfmcintyre]

Don't simply retire from something; have something to retire to. Start saving, keep saving, and stick to investments.

[prodigal_southerner]

Does it really take an hour to say "yes?"

[AmberAmber]

Corporate Greed & 45s tariffs from his term explain it.

[pjgoldstein]

What about the part where as an example JBS USA controls the majority supply of meats in this country? In other words if something has chicken in it, all grocery stores eventually come back to what JBS thinks the price should be. Rinse and repeat for every other type of good that has a monopoly in it. Isn't it possible that that is a better source for describing the greed inflation?

[raymondlambert]

so if retail markup is reasonable how about wholesale? producers? transport costs? are those markups also reasonable?

[inthehouse]

So shifts in consumer behavior and increased purchases of store-brands account for the profits of the 12 companies that own 80% of food production and distribution in the US going up 51% to 950% in some cases since the pandemic and not coming back down? Instead of "rocket-feather" trends we have "rocket-G force" trends. The title of this piece should be "Why is Mr Tedeschi trying to soft-pedal monopoly control of food?"

[brianmarshall]

So, grocery chains experience only small increases in gross margins? That is only "marginally" reassuring since they operate on small margins to begin with. Does a small increase in gross margin translate to large increase in the end profit margin?
In Canada, we have similar lack of competition in the grocery sector. Somehow, major grocery chains managed to double their profits in $ while maintaining their % profitability (around 3%, I believe). Hence, a doubling of dividends for shareholders and big comp increases for execs.
It was shocking to watch the CEO of a major grocery chain, testifying in Parliament, defend their right to maintain their profit margin like it was a 'religious' right. Meanwhile, everyone from the media, to economists, to CEO's, the central bank and consumers pile on when employees ask for their wages to keep up with inflation.

[JK-gutl]

Those greedy ceos are also responsible for venezuela.

[gatomalo-io]

What an intelligent question! Proving again how hyper-intellectual The Atlantic is.

[Donghua-clips]

Yall out here trying to run interference for the corporations? Bad look.

[BC-tpep]

I’ve got a theory. It can also happen because the money supply increases. We’ve had massive inflation since 2008 with quantitive easing compounded by government spending funded by borrowing not taxes. The reason no-one realises this is the inflation has been in asset prices such as housing and shares. We are getting a “re-balancing” of that expanded money supply coming out of the those asset classes through “profit taking” and into consumable goods which is the narrow “CPI” measure of inflation. At the end of the day it’s printing money and the printed money going to asset holders not an increase in productivity that’s driven the “strong” economy. Also interest rates go up and investors start selling out of their inflated assets and have more to spend on consumer goods. Which is why the current CPI inflation has been so resistant to interest increases.

[JaguaramongYOU]

I would love to share my story about two CEO'S who became greedy and hid a crime and is now being exposed

[danwylie-sears]

We don't know where he's from, when he recites a short list of unfamiliar store names. We only know he's not from around here.

[HebaruSan]

Corporations are _always_ greedy. The question is what holds them back in times of lower inflation.

[madiedamonsta]

Call me an anarchist but I don't think they should raise the prices of goods during emergencies. Like your house might collapse so we're gonna charge you $6 more for nails :)
I don't care about supply and demand, I don't care about theoretical numbers, I don't care about lines on graphs. I want to live a life of joy and safety without having to sell my leg for it.

[beckyweisfeld]

Another thing that has changed about people's consumption patterns in the past 20 years is they simply eat more food, especially ultra-processed food, than ever before in the history of humankind. Hence the obesity epidemic.

[CarolFoegen]

Actually I suspected inflation in foods was tied to gas prices and transportation costs. Any cost to supermarkets tends to get past on,