Politics Thread

[Strange Brew]

Can you honestly say with a straight face that for instance health insurance companies, hospitals, pharma etc are not price gouging?

No. That’s a whole other animal however they are likely covering a larger risk pool than ever.

[Strange Brew]

Totally, I'm just glad the corporations are so noble and didn't raise prices more! It's so easy, you know?

Yeah, there’s no such thing as an equilibrium price point! :)

[xubrew]

Totally, I'm just glad the corporations are so noble and didn't raise prices more! It's so easy, you know?

I probably know less about national and global economics and the things that impact it than I do about the mating habits of starfish.

[GoMuskies]

I can't claim to know much about macroeconomics either. I'm sure my Xavier economics professor would be ashamed. But a corporation's job is (and has been for much longer than three years) to charge the amount for its products and services that will maximize profits. If there is an environment that allows corporations to raise their prices and increase profits, that's (initially at least) an effect of the macroeconomic environment and not the cause of it. Sure, those price/profits increases will have ripple effects, but corporate officers can't just wake up one day and decided to raise prices and boost profits. If they could, they should be fired, because they should have raised prices earlier.

[STL_XUfan]

Yes, corporations only figured out 3 years ago that if they raise prices they can make more money. It's wild really.

It isn't that they discovered it, it was that Covid gave them an excuse to jack the prices up at the same time as their competitors without it looking like price fixing. Now companies are slow to reduce their prices as people have got used to paying the higher prices and they are seeing more profit from it.

[GoMuskies]

If a corporation's leadership team suggested a pricing strategy that was expected to reduce their profits, that leadership team should be fired.

[Strange Brew]

It isn't that they discovered it, it was that Covid gave them an excuse to jack the prices up at the same time as their competitors without it looking like price fixing. Now companies are slow to reduce their prices as people have got used to paying the higher prices and they are seeing more profit from it.

Not sure there’s evidence to back that up.

It is however hard to ignore the effect the record levels of inflation the last 2 years have had on prices. In fact, it’s lazy to blame Corporations for being “all corporationy”.

[Xville]

If a corporation's leadership team suggested a pricing strategy that was expected to reduce their profits, that leadership team should be fired.

Just because you lower prices doesn’t mean you lower profits.

[Strange Brew]

Just because you lower prices doesn’t mean you lower profits.

Volume/growth strategy.

However I’d imagine most companies have switch to an EBITA model considering the current borrowing rates.

[GoMuskies]

Just because you lower prices doesn’t mean you lower profits.

If you find where I said it did, I'll go back and correct myself.