Jump to content

~* Make America Great Depression Again -- Official Thread of Corona Virus infected markets *~


Jason

Recommended Posts

7 hours ago, sblfilms said:


This is not true. If you have a scenario where raw/unfinished materials used in your business become more scarce, it doesn’t require those prices to increase to necessitate your own price increases. This is especially true for industries with low margins and high fixed costs.

 

There certainly are businesses increasing prices just for funsies, but there are plenty who are stuck having to charge more per unit just to keep the doors open because they simply can’t meet the demand for their goods because they can’t get product from their suppliers.

It’s not just for funsies, I’d argue.  What we’re actually witnessing is also a little bit of a war between the large, dominant members of capital and its more peripheral (and far more numerous)  members.

 

When it comes to the relationship between large firms and small firms, inflation is highly redistributional.  It raises the profits per employee of the larger firms more quickly, or lowers them more slowly, than it does for small firms, and systematically so.

 

IMO business in general basically perceives that, despite the ‘reopening ‘, it is still operating in a highly volatile environment. (which will probably continue until the pandemic is totally behind us) As such, it is not confident it can ‘beat the competition’ by getting bigger and expanding long-term capacity, or at least sees it as too risky to try; the only path left to gaining a competitive advantage in this situation is raising profits per unit quicker than everyone else.

 

Supply bottlenecks are definitely a part of what started this inflationary surge, (and, IMO, the dollar’s large depreciation during the pandemic’s shutdown phase) but I think the heavyweight firms are now also using it and partially egging it on in order to put the squeeze to smaller firms, who are less capable of leveraging the rise in prices to their benefit and less equipped to manage the increase in operating costs.  
 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, Signifyin(g)Monkey said:

It’s not just for funsies, I’d argue.  What we’re actually witnessing is also a little bit of a war between the large, dominant members of capital and its more peripheral (and far more numerous)  members.

 

When it comes to the relationship between large firms and small firms, inflation is highly redistributional.  It raises the profits per employee of the larger firms more quickly, or lowers them more slowly, than it does for small firms, and systematically so.

 

IMO business in general basically perceives that, despite the ‘reopening ‘, it is still operating in a highly volatile environment. (which will probably continue until the pandemic is totally behind us) As such, it is not confident it can ‘beat the competition’ by getting bigger and expanding long-term capacity, or at least sees it as too risky to try; the only path left to gaining a competitive advantage in this situation is raising profits per unit quicker than everyone else.

 

Supply bottlenecks are definitely a part of what started this inflationary surge, (and, IMO, the dollar’s large depreciation during the pandemic’s shutdown phase) but I think the heavyweight firms are now also using it and partially egging it on in order to put the squeeze to smaller firms, who are less capable of leveraging the rise in prices to their benefit and less equipped to manage the increase in operating costs.  
 

 

 


Squeezing other firms is part of the funsies :p 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

social
WWW.WSJ.COM

The force of the American expansion is inducing overseas companies to invest in the U.S., betting that the growth is still accelerating and will outpace other major economies.

FRANKFURT—A booming U.S. economy is rippling around the world, leaving global supply chains struggling to keep up and pushing up prices.

The force of the American expansion is also inducing overseas companies to invest in the U.S., betting that the growth is still accelerating and will outpace other major economies.

U.S. consumers, flush with trillions of dollars of fiscal stimulus, are snapping up manufactured goods and scarce materials.

U.S. economic output is set to expand by more than 7% annualized in the final three months of the year, up from about 2% in the previous quarter, according to early output estimates published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. That compares with expected annualized growth of about 2% in the eurozone and 4% in China for the fourth quarter, according to JPMorgan Chase.

 

Major U.S. ports are processing almost one-fifth more container volume this year than they did in 2019, even as volumes at major European ports like Hamburg and Rotterdam are roughly flat or lag behind 2019 levels. The busiest U.S. container ports are leaping ahead of their counterparts in Asia and Europe in global rankings as volumes surge, according to shipping data provider Alphaliner.

In Europe, “durable goods consumption is showing nothing like the boom that is ongoing in the United States,” said Fabio Panetta, who sits on the European Central Bank’s six-member executive board, in a speech last month. Consumption of durable goods has surged about 45% above 2018 levels in the U.S., but is up only about 2% in the eurozone, according to ECB data.

 

Factory gate prices in China are far outpacing consumer prices, signaling a gulf between weak domestic demand and strong overseas demand that is powered in particular by U.S. hunger for China’s manufactured goods.

While tangled global supply chains also play a role in driving global inflation, economists and central bankers are increasingly pointing to ultrastrong U.S. demand as a root cause.

“Are we crowding out consumers in other countries? Probably,” said Aneta Markowska, chief financial economist at Jefferies in New York. “The U.S. consumer has a lot more purchasing power as a result of fiscal policy than consumers elsewhere. Europe could be in a stagflationary scenario next year as a consequence.”

The U.S. accounts for almost nine-tenths of the roughly 22-percentage-point surge in demand for durable goods among major advanced economies since the end of 2019, according to data from the Bank of England.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Major fiscal stimulus is a good thing folks

The fact that the wealthy are against giving poor people money out of tax revenue is ridiculous, considering money actually does "trickle up." Most of it still winds up back in their pockets eventually, but the economy keeps-a-churnin' in the process.

  • True 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

How about some nice bullshit?

 

H4JSVR6B772C2PHCKUFVRDTD4Y.JPG
WWW.BOSTONGLOBE.COM

The Department of Unemployment Assistance made overpayments on about 719,000 claims in 2020-2021. It’s going after recipients even if they weren’t at fault.

 

Quick of it, the Baker admin is going after and trying to reclaim all the federal unemployment money it handed out and then later decided was mistaken. This is federal money that they're literally looking to pull out of Mass residents' hands for no reason other than Republican desire to make sure nobody gets anything the right doesn't think they deserve.

 

This one is a bit personal, because they're going after my wife for some $7k in unemployment she got back in 2020 when her hours were cut from 32hr/week to 4hr/week... hours she rarely worked because her clients kept canceling for fear of COVID. She spoke to no less than four different people that told her she has eligible throughout the entire process. Like a month ago she got a letter in the mail saying they were mistaken and she was overpaid by $7k and they want it back. Their reasoning? Because of their backlog on claims, she wasn't paid for months. Instead she randomly received it months later as a lump payment after she had found a new job as a remote special needs teacher. She called to make sure everything was fine and was told as much, so we spent the money on some past due bills. That's it. They want all of it back because it was sent to her after she started a new job, even though it was for time claimed while she was out of work. The dollar amount would have been fine if she had received it on time, but their backlog instead meant she got it late. If I had a spare $7k, maybe... no, fuck them.

 

Now I'm expecting them to claim we owe +$7k in taxes because of this. $7k, again, that was all federal money and didn't even come out of state coffers.

 

Really cool that we keep electing Republican governors.

  • Guillotine 1
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

One of those PUA claims was from Abby Heim of Rowley, and the effort to get a waiver on the $80,000 she owes has become a frustrating paperwork slog.


$80,000 in UE 😮

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Ghost_MH said:

How about some nice bullshit?

 

H4JSVR6B772C2PHCKUFVRDTD4Y.JPG
WWW.BOSTONGLOBE.COM

The Department of Unemployment Assistance made overpayments on about 719,000 claims in 2020-2021. It’s going after recipients even if they weren’t at fault.

 

Quick of it, the Baker admin is going after and trying to reclaim all the federal unemployment money it handed out and then later decided was mistaken. This is federal money that they're literally looking to pull out of Mass residents' hands for no reason other than Republican desire to make sure nobody gets anything the right doesn't think they deserve.

 

This one is a bit personal, because they're going after my wife for some $7k in unemployment she got back in 2020 when her hours were cut from 32hr/week to 4hr/week... hours she rarely worked because her clients kept canceling for fear of COVID. She spoke to no less than four different people that told her she has eligible throughout the entire process. Like a month ago she got a letter in the mail saying they were mistaken and she was overpaid by $7k and they want it back. Their reasoning? Because of their backlog on claims, she wasn't paid for months. Instead she randomly received it months later as a lump payment after she had found a new job as a remote special needs teacher. She called to make sure everything was fine and was told as much, so we spent the money on some past due bills. That's it. They want all of it back because it was sent to her after she started a new job, even though it was for time claimed while she was out of work. The dollar amount would have been fine if she had received it on time, but their backlog instead meant she got it late. If I had a spare $7k, maybe... no, fuck them.

 

Now I'm expecting them to claim we owe +$7k in taxes because of this. $7k, again, that was all federal money and didn't even come out of state coffers.

 

Really cool that we keep electing Republican governors.

 

Don't worry, I'm sure there'll be a class action lawsuit that nets you a free year of Turbotax, obviously a fair trade for $7k.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Anathema- said:

how

 

Says it's for 20 months worth of unemployment. In Massachusetts you can receive 50% of your regular pay, up to a max of like ~$950. ~$950/week for 20 months comes out to about that. That means she was making at least $99k/year before being out of a job for the last two years. Massachusetts does allow you to claim health reasons for being out of work and she's 62 in a pandemic with who knows what medical history

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

Fine. It's the start of the year meaning those 401k contributions are more valuable to do now. 

 

Yup, I just got paid (and thus had retirement contributions made) on Friday, hopefully the market's still here in two weeks at my next payday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

Good. I hope the party and grift ends. I feel bad for anyone caught in the grift...but it has to end at some point.


It’s not ending. People are just trying to get out in front of the looming Fed rate hikes and out of asset classes that have been inflated by both monetary and fiscal policy. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...