Two inflation Indicators: Corporate greed and mortgage rates

NPR ^ | 03/23/2022 | Darian Woods & Adrian Ma

[ChicagoConservative27]

We have been getting a version of this question lately: Is corporate greed driving inflation? Corporations are taking in record profits. Inflation is at 40 year highs. So could corporations just maybe not raise prices and still be fine and would that stop inflation?

There's a lot to unpack there, so today on the show, we investigate the greed thesis.

We also look through the metaphorical financial pipes connected to the Federal Reserve to see how last week's decision to raise interest rates will affect many of us, through higher mortgage rates.

[ChicagoConservative27]

Greed my butt. Brandon did it.

[Repeal The 17th]

I guess NPR doesn’t want to talk about States taking in
record sales taxes on the inflated prices...

[Fai Mao]

Greed is a constant. Trump, Obama, GWB, Obama, GHWB.and Reagan were able to keep it in check. Biden is still incompetent even if the reason for inflation is greed. Other presidents did not let this happen.

[ridesthemiles]

I do NOT trust NPR to tell me what day it is.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Note that government, in its incessant desire to raise taxes, is never spoken of as greedy. Really, since gov’t wants to do everything for you and would if it had the opportunity, they should be raising taxes until all you can afford is your Netflix subscription and a can or two of catfood.

[cdcdawg]

I can’t believe we are having to debate inflation again. This time, can we please humiliate the opposition after we win? Last time, we weren’t allowed to “spike the ball” or whatever.

[wny]

Morons.

[VanShuyten]

Transcript here:

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1088346603

Turns out not to be greed, although they do point out that lack of competition in industries, such as meat packing, are a problem.

Nowhere do they talk about printing up tens of trillions of dollars.

[ConservativeInPA]

Compare profits in real dollars, not devalued dollars, between today and before the pandemic. There probably isn't a big difference, and I wouldn't be surprise today's profits for some companies are down. That is certainly the case with most small businesses. I also believe you will find profit margins to be about the same. Some exceptions may exist, like Amazon since they benefited from the pandemic, but more recently they are seeing a downturn in business.

Amazon could go out of business for all I care. I don't want to buy junk from China via Jeff Bezos.

[Seruzawa]

Lol. Who is more greedy that someone who wants to live well without having to actually work. This makes publicly funded NGOs, like NPR, the greediest of all.

Defund PBS/NPR.

[Dr. Sivana]

Why weren’t they greedy under Trump? What enabled their greed?

[packagingguy]

Yes, companies are raking in more money than ever. On the flip side that money is worth less, and less, and less, and less...

[House Atreides]

“Greed my butt. Brandon did it.”
***********************************

Hey!! Stop distracting from NPR’s “Squirrel!” talk with the truth. 😂

[caver]

This article has to rate up there as the most stupid of the week.

[guitar Josh]

The last time corporate profits were at record highs, which were 1% - 2% lower than they are now, inflation was under 2%. Greed isn't the problem, policy is.

Let's say I own a McDonald's, and I need 10 people at all time to run at max efficiency. I can only find 6 people, so I can pocket the difference of not paying 6 employees.

The only problem is that demand hasn't dropped, but we have longer lines, longer wait times, and frustrated workers that have have to do the work of coworkers that don't exist. Throw on top of that shortages due to supply chain issues.

There's one way to alleviate a lot of those problems, and that is raise prices. That will slow demand, my workers won't be so overworked, lines and wait times will be shorter, and we won't run out of items as often.

[fhayek]

Let me tell you a story about our local PBS affiliate (Buffalo). I was a concrete contractor, and we were hired to build a foundation for a new entrance to the facility. Being a public corporation the structure was 1) Overdesigned and 2) Required to use prevailing wage rates as per Davis-Bacon. For those who aren't familiar with Davis-Bacon, anything built with public money mandates that each construction trade has to be paid at a specified wage rate. Loosely translated, this means union scale. It is how the government subsidizes union construction trade.

Now, if it were a privately owned television station, they would have sought to build this entrance as economically as possible, but being funded by the government, the local PBS could not care less about how much it costs. It's not their money, after all. Easy to be generous (i.e. 'not greedy') when it's not coming out of their wallet.

Well, it just so happens that this was built in the late summer of 2000. So what? Well that was the year when our lovely First Lady at the time decided to run for the Senate in New York. And, they scheduled a debate between Hillary Clinton and Rick Lazio at this very same PBS affiliate. We were all set to pour the concrete when were halted because the Secret Service had concerns for the safety and well-being of our dear First Lady. So we cancelled the concrete pour till the next day. Some of you might be aware that all concrete is not the same. There are various 'mix designs', or recipes for concrete. On the second day, there was a mix up in the order (I blame the concrete dispatcher, but whatever). We poured the wrong type of concrete.

Because of our lovely First Lady, the project inspector made us tear out the concrete and redo it. The concrete that was poured would have lasted two centuries, at least. It was an entrance, not a nuclear reactor, for gosh sakes. All at the cost of my company. All at prevailing wage rates.

Now a screw up is a screw up, but the level of over-engineering and enhanced costs by "non-profits" like PBS is mind numbing. When profits don't matter, neither do costs. Greed. Sheesh.

[entropy12]

No. The correct solution is there if you look.
Cut out unemployment to all able bodied people of working age.

Singapore did that a few decades back. Now has more millionaires based on population size than any other country in the world. And unemployment rate has been essentially zero for decades.

When I flew from Singapore airport and landed in US airport
it felt like I was in a 3rd world airport.

[sauropod]

.