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2021 - Is inflation finally back in the conversation?


Reagan1k

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19 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

While you could be correct that it is overblown or out of context, numerous articles state that Andy Groff, Kroger's pricing head, confronted with emails, admitted that they raised prices beyond that necessary to pass through cost inflation.

This might be damning if somebody would first please define what is the correct prices sellers have a "right" to set?

(And, you know, think through the implication of that)

Like, are they supposed to do this that is written in the Bloomberg article:

Quote

Kroger and other grocers have benefited from periods of higher inflation as they passed down price increases to consumers. Supermarket operators raised retail prices instead of absorbing all increases, and higher food prices led to jumps in sales until shoppers pulled back on their spending.

It shouldn't need reminding that none of these things are illegal or amoral:

*selling eggs at kroger when buyers have 10 other stores they can buy it from

*asking for variable margins across different products when the companies total residual profit before, during, and after the pandemic was literally less than 2%

nobody limits how much you can ask in exchange for your house, your car, or your labor. it shouldn't need reminding, but a bunch of you take your cues from Newsweek headlines, so maybe it does after all.

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1 hour ago, 52-80 said:

nobody limits how much you can ask in exchange for your house, your car, or your labor. it shouldn't need reminding, but a bunch of you take your cues from Newsweek headlines, so maybe it does after all.

Not so sure on that one.  I recall an investigation in my Travis Heights neighborhood years ago when a house sold at an extreme premium to market rates.  Nefarious intent was suspected.  I never heard what happened, though.

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If these entities like Kroger want to engage in monopolistic practices and take over a plurality to majority of the overall market, then yeah they should probably get some extra rules and governance and not just be allowed to extract as much as they can

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1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

Not so sure on that one.  I recall an investigation in my Travis Heights neighborhood years ago when a house sold at an extreme premium to market rates.  Nefarious intent was suspected.  I never heard what happened, though.

I mean, if I suddenly came into FU money and I wanted to buy my parents $600k house from them for $1.2mm and then let them live in the guest house for free, that's my decision and there's nothing nefarious about it.  

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4 minutes ago, Trey3216 said:

I mean, if I suddenly came into FU money and I wanted to buy my parents $600k house from them for $1.2mm and then let them live in the guest house for free, that's my decision and there's nothing nefarious about it.  

Well, you essentially gifted them $600K and there was no tax paid on the first $500K over cost basis, so maybe not exactly kosher?

Full disclosure:  not an attorney or real estate expert.  Happy to be wrong about this.

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Back when many people didnt understand how the world worked, some natural event like a landslide would rush through a village, and the priest would invent a new superstition to ascribe the occurence. 

Like “well that was obviously the goat-headed mud demon Zuul acting out of malevolence, and if you elect me as elder ill cast a spell to keep him out”

And it worked. The priest gained more followers and the simple villagers gained an avatar towards which they direct their spite. 

Sometimes reading shit about business here feels a lot like that still, just voodoo and superstition. 

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18 hours ago, Snake Diggity said:

If they don’t cut, the stock market will crash.

If they cut .25, I think the market will suffer some.

 

I would bet heavily on a .50 cut this month.  Wouldn’t bet against another cut (maybe even another .50) in October.

Ehhhh. I’m of the opinion that the market has already priced in a 25 basis point cut. I’m also thinking that Powell won’t want to be seen as political and won’t cut more than that this month. I may be wrong though.

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29 minutes ago, pearlandhorn said:

Ehhhh. I’m of the opinion that the market has already priced in a 25 basis point cut. I’m also thinking that Powell won’t want to be seen as political and won’t cut more than that this month. I may be wrong though.

Yeah I may be wrong too (goes without saying lol).  But my current guess is they cut 50 this month then see if that momentum carries thru to October while trying to manage expectations against another cut.  If the momentum carries, they’ll leave it alone in October but regardless I think they will overreact to sentiment each of these next 2 months.

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I said previously, but I think we get a bit of a short term selloff either way.  I think 50 exasperates the sell off.  
 

no cut is a rug pull, so sell off.

cut is brief panic that they actually had to cut.

I’m not bold/crazy enough to bet that in the market.  Just an opinion.

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FTC going to work on more artificial cost inflation

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/20/ftc-sues-drug-middlemen-for-allegedly-inflating-insulin-prices.html

Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) sit at the center of the drug supply chain in the U.S. They negotiate rebates with drug manufacturers on behalf of insurers, large employers and federal health plans. They also create lists of medications, or formularies, that are covered by insurance and reimburse pharmacies for prescriptions. The FTC has been investigating PBMs since 2022. 

The agency’s suit argues that the three PBMs have created a “perverse” drug rebate system that prioritizes high rebates from drugmakers, which leads to “artificially inflated insulin list prices.” It also alleges that PBMs favor those high-list-price insulins even when more affordable insulins with lower list prices become available. 

The FTC is filing its complaint through its so-called administrative process, which initiates a proceeding before an administrative judge who would hear the case.

“Millions of Americans with diabetes need insulin to survive, yet for many of these vulnerable patients, their insulin drug costs have skyrocketed over the past decade thanks in part to powerful PBMs and their greed,” Rahul Rao, deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in a statement. 

“The FTC’s administrative action seeks to put an end to the Big Three PBMs’ exploitative conduct and marks an important step in fixing a broken system—a fix that could ripple beyond the insulin market and restore healthy competition to drive down drug prices for consumers,” Rao continued. 

Roughly 8 million Americans with diabetes rely on insulin to survive, and many have been forced to ration the treatment due to high prices, according to the FTC.

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6 minutes ago, Redneck Mutha said:

The answer is simple, volume.

They obtained a truck and paid a farmer $1 each for enough melons to fill it up. Then they drove the truck to a stand they had built by the side of a busy road where they sold the truckload of watermelons for $1 each.

They went back to the farmer and purchased another truckload of melons for $1 each and again sold them for $1 each. As they drove to purchase the third load of melons one of the partners said to the other, “We’re not making much money on this business, are we?” “No, we’re not,” his partner replied. “Do you think we need a bigger truck?”

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No idea where to post this but didn’t wanna start a new thread. Right now, I’m waiting to board a flight from Houston to Dallas. I’m sitting across from one of the biggest douchers I’ve ever seen. He’s probably 60 with white hair and a white goatee - trying REALLY hard to look stylish. But he’s got a Chase button down shirt on, and Chase socks on, so whatever he’s trying to do is rendered fucking moot. 

He’s on the phone loudly talking about needing to hire someone, because he needs to fire someone.  I don’t know to do what - to work in a fucking branch?  And he’s loudly talking about going to the Admiral’s club. I want to assault this motherfucker so bad I make the Hall of Shame thread here. 

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54 minutes ago, Rex Kramer said:

No idea where to post this but didn’t wanna start a new thread. Right now, I’m waiting to board a flight from Houston to Dallas. I’m sitting across from one of the biggest douchers I’ve ever seen. He’s probably 60 with white hair and a white goatee - trying REALLY hard to look stylish. But he’s got a Chase button down shirt on, and Chase socks on, so whatever he’s trying to do is rendered fucking moot. 

He’s on the phone loudly talking about needing to hire someone, because he needs to fire someone.  I don’t know to do what - to work in a fucking branch?  And he’s loudly talking about going to the Admiral’s club. I want to assault this motherfucker so bad I make the Hall of Shame thread here. 

Surprised he wasn't on speaker phone or facetiming.  Every one of those bag of dicks need a beating.

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59 minutes ago, Rex Kramer said:

No idea where to post this but didn’t wanna start a new thread. Right now, I’m waiting to board a flight from Houston to Dallas. I’m sitting across from one of the biggest douchers I’ve ever seen. He’s probably 60 with white hair and a white goatee - trying REALLY hard to look stylish. But he’s got a Chase button down shirt on, and Chase socks on, so whatever he’s trying to do is rendered fucking moot. 

He’s on the phone loudly talking about needing to hire someone, because he needs to fire someone.  I don’t know to do what - to work in a fucking branch?  And he’s loudly talking about going to the Admiral’s club. I want to assault this motherfucker so bad I make the Hall of Shame thread here. 

 

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