“Greedflation”

12 Jun “Greedflation”

Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay

Again, I go back to Gordon Gekko. “I don’t throw darts at a dartboard, sport. I bet on sure things.” I’ve told you and told you and told you. I feel like Gordon Gekko is not just this representative of 1980s Wall Street, 1980s yuppies, 1980s Manhattan. I really think that Gordon Gekko is an embodiment of the system. He’s sort of like, what if we crystallized the main elements of the system down and made it into an anthropomorphic being. That’s Gordon Gekko. “I don’t throw darts at a dartboard. I only bet on sure things.” And then he sends Bud out to collect information so that he can have insider trading. This happens and it happens and happens and happens.

-“Saturday Broadcast 51”  https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/12983098

It was also Gordon Gekko who gave us the famous “greed is good” speech in the first Wall Street film:

The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.

If that was true, I’d think we’d be in a much different situation now than we actually are. I think there’s a point where a healthy joie de vivre can mutate into something beyond a normal zest. In Gekko’s case, he makes it clear there is no number that represents the concept of having enough:

BUD
Tell me, Gordon–when does it all end? How many yachts can you waterski behind? How much is enough?

GEKKO
Buddy, it’s not a question of enough. It’s a zero sum game, sport. Somebody wins and somebody loses. Money itself isn’t lost or made, it’s simply transferred from one perception to another. Like magic. That painting cost $60,000 10 years ago. I could sell it today for $600,000. The illusion has become real. And the more real it becomes, the more desperately they want it. Capitalism at its finest.

BUD
How much is enough Gordon?

GEKKO
The richest one percent of this country owns half the country’s wealth: 5 trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds of it comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulation to widows and idiot sons and what I do — stock and real estate speculation. It’s bullshit. Ninety percent of the American people have little or no net worth. I create nothing; I own. We make the rules, Buddy, the news, war, peace, famine, upheaval; the cost of a paper clip. We pull the rabbit out of the hat while everybody else sits around their whole life wondering how we did it… you’re not naïve enough to think we’re living in a democracy are you, Buddy?

–https://imsdb.com/scripts/Wall-Street.html

“‘Greedflation’ Squeezes Consumers As Corporations Rake In Record Profits Amid Soaring Prices”
–https://finance.yahoo.com/news/greedflation-squeezes-consumers-corporations-rake-191002112.html

Greedflation and price gouging and profiteering? Well, clutch my pearls, I am just so surprised. 😒

“Soaring costs have failed to impede the unprecedented profitability of corporations, defying the conventional workings of capitalism. Over the past year, consumers and businesses worldwide have grappled with persistent inflation, while companies, including those in the Fortune 500, have reaped record-breaking profits.” -Yahoo Finance, Ibid.

Listen: we need to get off this narrative that we have a free market system and it will take care of bad actors. WE DO NOT. We live in a Crony Capitalist system where the elites get socialism and everyone else gets f**ked. The “conventional workings of capitalism.” What a laugh. Of course these jackals have reaped record-breaking profits whilst the little guy gets squeezed. How could it be otherwise?

“‘The end of greedflation must surely come. Otherwise, we may be looking at the end of capitalism,’ Edwards warned.” -Yahoo Finance, Ibid.

I don’t bet on either of those things. What would they replace Crony Capitalism with? More overt authoritarianism, I’d guess.

“Is it time to regulate prices? Edwards proposes a controversial solution to combat the rise of greedflation, which he claims reflects his waning confidence in the capitalist system itself. Reminiscent of the failed price and income policies of the 1970s, Edwards suggests resorting to price controls. While historically criticized for causing various calamities, from the downfall of the Babylonian Empire to the infamous gas lines during the Nixon and Carter administrations, price controls may now be warranted because of what Edwards sees as a fundamental breakdown in capitalism.” -Yahoo Finance, Ibid.

😆 The only way Corpo America will submit to price controls is if Corpo America benefits from said price controls. Remember: there is collusion between the cronies on Capitol Hill and the cronies on Wall Street and in Corpo America. One doesn’t do anything to really move against the others. In appearances to keep naïve people fooled, sure. But not in reality. This kind of talk strikes me as Problem ➡️ Proposed solution that will turn people off ➡️ Another more “moderate” solution that more folks will go along with. I mean, any reference to sh*tty policies from the 1970s is not gonna engender much support.

“While the FED raises interest rates to counter inflation, our biggest corporations are perpetuating inflation by aggressively raising prices on goods and services. This price gouging is occurring at a time when raw material costs are dropping…mostly because the economic effects of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have waned. Wages and salaries (as detailed in the Employment Cost Index), have been trending downward, as well.

Bottom line: Consumer prices continue to rise because our elected leaders are ignoring the damage inflicted by corporations with so much market dominance they can set prices wherever they want.” –https://www.hollandsentinel.com/story/opinion/columns/2023/06/11/lynn-smith-its-clear-were-ignoring-corporate-greedflation/70293241007/

I’d reframe this to say: our “elected” leaders are not ignoring the damage – they are fully aware of what’s going on and they’re in on the gaffe. Please stop with these fairy tales that everyone in politics or at a central bank is ignorant, stupid, foolhardy, etc. These vultures KNOW what they are doing.

“Never Mistake Political Malevolence for Incompetence
Politicians aren’t stupid; they’re evil”
–https://medium.com/surviving-tomorrow/never-mistake-political-malevolence-for-incompetence-824a2f8db3de

Indeed so.

“It makes no sense for the FED to risk creating a recession as long as corporate America continues to inflate prices. And sadly, if a recession ultimately occurs, the resulting job losses will hit the same population that’s already reeling from high prices.” -Holland Sentinel, Ibid.

It makes perfect sense if you’re in on the scheme, n’est-ce pas?

–https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fed-interest-rate-hikes-unemployment-increase-layoffs-inflation/

They aren’t completely obscuring their agenda. They are merely trouncing you with so much bullsh*t and conflicting narratives that you don’t even know which end is up.

These vultures are not morons who make mistakes due to idiocy; they know precisely what they are doing. The MSM pushes whatever narrative it’s told to, so there’s no compunction in telling you we somehow have a 3.7% unemployment rate and the job market is still so good and the economy is still so resilient that The Fed needs to crash it further. 😖

-“Where does hope go?”  https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2023/06/11/where-does-hope-go/

They throw sand in the questions by telling you we somehow miraculously have a low unemployment rate and the economy is so good, by Golly, The Fed just simply has to crash the damn thing to bring down the sticky inflation. Meanwhile, these демоны are the ones who caused the inflation in the first place! One thing the author gets correct is that the same people reeling from high prices are the same ones about to lose their jobs. It all links together. In an economic crash, you get a helluva lot more compliant with everything from RTO to political agendas to CBDCs to renting everything from corporate overlords. When the job losses impact housing, the overlords will stand ready to buy up subdivisions, neighborhoods, land, etc., and turn it all into a dystopian “you vill own nozing” hellscape.

“Most large corporations don’t spend their growing profits on investments that would make their businesses more productive … they’re spent on stock buybacks, which reward top executives and big investors, but do little to spread the wealth across a broader swath of our economy.” -Holland Sentinel, Ibid.

#NAILEDIT

Yup. They do the same thing with QE easy money, too. They get loans with little or no interest, buy up stocks, and play the market hoping they’ll make a huge ROI. And if not, well, who cares. They’ll get a bailout from the cronies and the whole thing will happen again down the road. You and I are supposed to factor in moral hazard but these *ssholes don’t.

“After decades of competition-crushing mergers and acquisitions, costing millions of jobs, and gutting Midwestern towns, few have benefitted beyond a handful of Wall Street bankers. When Procter & Gamble announced in January that it would buy competitor Gillette for $57 billion, buried in the headlines were 6,000 lost jobs, and the further degradation of consumers’ purchasing power. Because monopolized markets are always characterized by high prices, low quality, and lagging innovation, our political leaders need to employ anti-trust legislation to break up existing monopolies, and prohibit further formation.” -Holland Sentinel, Ibid.

We could easily see a similar phenomenon happen in banking, i.e., your banking options become limited to a handful of huge banks deemed “too big to fail” and backed by the FDIC while all the other options dry up and blow away. I’m not saying that would happen overnight, but I think it’s a future possibility. These monopolized markets don’t happen by accident either and no, the leaders on Capitol Hill will not use anti-trust legislation in any meaningful way. Neolibs are smart enough to get that Corpo America isn’t their friend but they get trapped in the boondoggle that the state (which is in bed with Wall Street and Corpo America) will somehow help the little guy. What a joke.

I wish I had some neat, tidy answer to give you but I don’t. IMO, knowledge is power and ignorance is not bliss. The more you can stay one step ahead of these vultures, the better.