What has happening regarding inflation is something which has been fairly obvious at just a glance and a miniscule amount of understanding about these things (ie. me).  So the notion that reporters haven't also been at least suspicious of what corporations have been doing while they were reporting about the necessity of all these price hikes  is ridiculous on its face.

I've absolutely begun to buy significantly less products, including groceries. No more stocking the fridge. Just enough to get through a couple of days and then back to the store for a couple more bags. And it's helped alot, since now we are wasting significantly less food. Only buying essential items (mostly).

But there is still only so much cutting back one can do because....its food...it's gas. So unfortunately the only thing left to do is to start dragging these people out into the streets and stone them to death. Joking, not joking.

For years I realized that the one percent had finally gotten wise from history. That they don't need Everything. That they can live extremely lavish lifestyles, and be excessively wealthy, and at least still give the middle and even lower classes just enough not to get truly feisty. Because there is only so much discomfort you can put the majority of a population in before they start looking for heads.

But I guess they never learn. Apparently they needed the rest of the money that they'll never have the time in their lives to spend too. I guess the promise of making a significant proportion of the population miserable and grovel for scraps is all they have left to perk up their days.

Maybe we've become collectively too apathetic for a legit class revolution. Or maybe the Poor's have become too divided to understand they both have a common enemy, no matter our politics, no matter our ethnicity or religion or sexual orientation.

But I hope not. I hope these greedy fucks get what is coming to them. Because it would be more than deserved.

Jinnistan wrote:

crumbsroom wrote:

So the notion that reporters haven't also been at least suspicious of what corporations have been doing while they were reporting about the necessity of all these price hikes is ridiculous on its face.

I sure would like an apology at least.  Some kind of acknowledgement that they got it wrong.  What I've learned is that liars don't apologize.

And if not that, to at least improve. Learn. Course correct. Not be total garbage.

So basically a bunch more things just as unlikely as an apology.

On a side note, sort of amusing that De Santis’s campaign launch on Twitter was apparently a disaster, but alas we’re just gearing up for four more years of Trump, because people don’t fucking learn anything.

Rock wrote:

Rock wrote:

The reporting around inflation has been frustrating because at least to be, it seemed very obviously to have really fired up after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and resulting spike in oil prices, but rather than point to even that obvious factor, it’s been a bunch of mindless parroting that government stimulus measures (which at least in the US weren’t even that significant) were to blame (I will punch out the next person who says “Bidenflation” or “Justinflation”). And of course all the business guys wheeled out on TV weren’t going to point to corporate opportunism as the problem, or get subjected to even an iota of pushback when they parroted the same claims.

This is also where I point out the fact that it’s become  accepted wisdom for whatever reason that the reason economic growth was suppressed the last few years was because of all the restrictions, and not the fact that people were, I dunno, dying in a pandemic and losing their jobs and maybe a little wary of spending money because of all the uncertainty.

Not necessarily in that order.

So...Cornell West??

I haven't mentioned the latest chapeter in the saga of Tara Reade (not her real name, it's worth noting), the woman who accused Joe Biden of "digitally penetrating" her.  There's a number of questionable aspects in Reade's history to suggest her ability to fabricate truth, but more interestingly was her past positions on Vladimir Putin, such as writing a Facebook post entitled "Why a Liberal Democrat Supports Vladimir Putin", which suggests a possible motive for disrupting Biden's 2020 campaign.  This was all pointed out at the time.

Now, it seems the corroboration is complete, with Tara Reade defecting to Russia.  Of course she claims that this is because she feels she's unsafe in America due to the pressures of the "Biden crime family".  To further push the point home, she appeared with convicted Russian asset Maria Butina, the woman who was involved in fucking a number of the members of the NRA and their associated lobbyists in order to curry favor for the Motherland, and a major figure in the not-quite-dispelled Trump/Russia collusion story.

I have noticed how some of the progressive media who were particularly anti-Biden have not been interested in reporting this story.
 

So whistleblower Reality Winner got five years for showing documented evidence of Russia hacking into state election infrastructure in 2016.

And whistleblower David Grusch, after divulging supposed (but not actual) evidence of our government's possession of up to a dozen "exotic" "non-human vehicles", while also, roundabout kinda, suggesting government possession of alien corpses, is sentenced to a ..... media tour?

Hm.  Hmm.  I, uh.  Hm.  Is the Wernher von Braun thing still?  Ah.  Oh.  Um.
 

The Federal Reserve has paused, for the moment, their interest rate hikes, but I still haven't seen chair Powell, or Treasury sec Yellen, actually address the increasingly accepted reality of the role that corporate profits have played in the inflation that these interest rates were ostensibly intended to combat.  General radio silence across financial and government regulators, along with a similar disinterest from mainstream news.

According to a new analysis from Accountable.us:

Following the U.S. Labor Department’s latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, a new analysis from government watchdog Accountable.US found many of the largest general consumer S&P 500 companies have admitted to benefiting from increased prices as their net profits increased year-over-year and they rewarded shareholders with billions in new shareholder handouts. The data is more evidence that while inflation is slowing, the Fed’s strategy of repeated interest rate hikes has been unable to contain a key driver of excessive consumer prices — corporate greed...

After an unprecedented 10 interest rate hikes in a row, it’s clear the corporate profiteering epidemic will persist no matter how many times the Fed doubles down. Higher interest rates haven’t stopped S&P companies, especially in the big food industry, from inflating consumer prices despite reporting billions in extra net earnings and over a trillion dollars in giveaways to wealthy investors. Corporate greed is a stubborn thing and requires serious action from Congress. The Fed has not seen an adequate return on its investment in a policy that has already created fissures in the economy that could lead to recession.

Some specifics from these "big food" corporations:

Accountable.US’ review foundGeneral Mills, whose executives admitted to “getting smart about how we look at pricing” while implementing “list price increases,” saw its net income increase 16.5% to $2.7 billion in its FY 2022 and saw continued profit increases in the first nine months of its FY 2023. Additionally, the company spent over $2.12 billion in shareholder handouts and $1.2 billion on the acquisition of Tyson Foods’ pet treats business in its FY 2022 and has nearly matched shareholder handouts in just the first nine months of FY 2023.

Accountable.US also found Tyson––whose executives touted seeing “significant pricing power of our portfolio with a year-over-year increase of 7.6%”––saw its net income increase from $3 billion in FY 2021 to over $3.2 billion in FY 2022 and rewarded shareholders with $1.35 billion in handouts––$652 million more than the previous year, including a 948.5% increase in stock buybacks.

PepsiCo’s net income went up by 16.9 percent to nearly $9 billion, and it spent more than $7.6 billion in stock buybacks and dividends in 2022.

From cosmetics:

Ulta Beauty executives “touted benefiting from an ‘elevated level of price increases,'” the report says, and Kimberly-Clark executives said, “pricing has continued to be a big driver behind our top line growth.”

Ulta’s fiscal 2022 net income went up 26 percent to $1.2 billion, and Kimberly-Clark’s net income increased 6.3 percent year-over-year to nearly $2 billion, according to the report.

More fun than that, since these corporations have gotten away with this ploy fairly scot-free, they obviously have no appetite to change course:

A recent New York Times report foundthe average S&P 500 company increased its profit margin from the end of 2022, partially led by the consumer discretionary sector — all while spending a record $922.7 billion on stock buybacks and a record $564.6 billion in dividends. According to the Times: “Some of the world’s biggest companies have said they do not plan to change course and will continue increasing prices or keep them at elevated levels for the foreseeable future. That strategy has cushioned corporate profits. And it could keep inflation robust, contributing to the very pressures used to justify surging prices.”

So, since it's clear that the Fed's interest rate increases have had zero impact on this corporate behavior, what exactly is the net-gain for maintaining these high rates going forward?

According to CNN: “Areas of the US economy have started to crack under the weight of persistently high inflation and a string of 10 consecutive rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. […] Some of the traditional recession indicators have been flashing red. Layoff announcements have quadrupled so far this year to 417,500, which — excluding 2020 — is the highest January to May total since 2009, according to a report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas released Thursday. Falling consumer confidence, monthly declines in the Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index, and drops in temporary help employment are also signaling that a downturn is just ahead. However, that long-predicted recession isn’t here just yet.

"Just yet".  The anticipation is palpable....

 

Jinnistan wrote:

the syphilitic left.... Bill Maher

And right on time...Maher's Club Random has on Robert Kennedy Jr.  I'm sure they'll have plenty of covid misinformation to share with each other.  Robert Kennedy seems content to continue appearing on podcasts and shows like Elon Musk, Megyn Kelly, Mikaela Peterson (Jordon's daughter, after his interview ith Jordan got yanked from Youtube), libertarian Patrick Bet-David, conservative/libertarian The Hill Rising and Breaking Points, Maga comedian Jim Breuer and religious conservative Patrick Coffin.  Or basically anyone that Democratic primary voters do not watch.  It's an interesting strategy.

It's also a little funny how, at the same time when the Wagner group is mutinying against Putin and their leader claiming that Putin's reasons for the invasion were all lies, that Robert Kennedy Jr. is choosing to run intereference on Putin's behalf:

Robert Kennedy Jr wrote:

He agreed to the Minsk Accord, and then he agreed in 2022 to an agreement that would’ve left Ukraine completely intact....It was us who forced Zelensky to sabotage that agreement. It was already signed.  So, you know, the Russians were acting in good faith.

Fact-checkers have been unable to identify any such 2022 agreement (probably because RFK Jr made it up out of thin air), but Putin has been on the recond, at least, in denying that the Minsk Accords ever actually existed.  "Good faith" indeed, and excellent timing, Junior.

And since Maher won't, here's a more in-depth fact-check of RFK Jr's appearance on Joe Rogan:



 

I like this Trump excuse: "I didn't see the recordings."

Technically true.  You can't see sound.  Nothing to see here, folks.