House oversight committee gets to root of inflation... corporate greed.

And surely you know that is only half of the equation.

 

this post is an argument against it being the root cause.

 

Yes. I am the one arguing that prices reflect value. Or, did Mahommes really work that much harder than Tebow?

 

Prices reflect costs too.

 

Never said they did not. A dude in Australia tripped over about a pound of gold. But guess what he sold it for the same as the dude who panned a river in Alaska for 10 years to get a pound.

 

There is no one root cause for the inflation we've had, so in that regard, corporate exploitation of it to increase profits is not a root cause. But it certainly can be a cause of continuing inflation and very likely is.

 

I have no idea what your point is. If you agree that in a well-function market costs and prices should be highly correlated all else being equal, then we have no debate here.

 

to say a mkt as if they are some generic thing is goofy. The nature of the good & the nature of the mkt are exceedingly important for that correlation. I have about $2000 of recording software on the computer I am typing on. Marginal production cost = $0. Besides, once again, I never said they were uncorrelated.

 

Right. Instead of talking about markets, let's talk about a guy who tripped over a pound of gold. As for your recording software, a lot of things go into the cost of it besides the physical production costs. Plus, who says your recording software market is well-functioning? Packages like Pro Tools likely have a lot of market power, given they and a few others dominate the market. If the producers have so much power to set their prices, sounds to me like you are making a good argument against unregulated markets.

 

my pt was the price of gold in that example is based on value not cost.

 

Surely you can think of a situation where you'd club a guy to death charging $1000 for a bottle of water too.

 

Yeah and and some people would be willing to pay $500 for the new Taylor Swift record but they only have to pay $30 for it instead. Prices aren't based on value alone.

 

correct. From my post:

Lastly, the notion in the OP that prices & cost should move in lockstep is sadly dumb.

 

Ok, then I'll go ahead and amend your original statement to reflect what you actually meant to say:

"Yes. I am the one arguing that prices reflect value and costs."

 

Agreed. I don’t think it’s so much that corporate greed is driving inflation but that current conditions have allowed corporations to maximize profit to levels not previously seen (something corporations are always trying to do).

When you have supply chain disruptions you can massively inflate the prices of even commodities in markets where there is a bunch of competitition. In the company I work for I’ve seen customers care about getting the product so much it was basically the only consideration. Cost was an afterthought.

 

It's kinda funny. You are making an arg for not regulating monopolistic companies. That is the go to arg in the pharmaceutical industry.

 

No, just recognizing that the actual physical production cost of your recording software is just a tiny fraction of what it cost to actually create it. They are also very likely using their market power to charge more too. Both things can be true.

And having worked in the pharma industry my entire career, I know all about how money grubbin' they are. They like money a lot.

 

yes. I know you weren't literally making that arg. You seem unusually prickly. did you get some bad migas? true story, up until about 5 years ago the only 2 places I ever had migas was Tx & in Hanoi. I went to a brunch hosted by a woman from Austin. I think the first pl I had 'em was a place called Kerby lane cafe in Austin.

 

No bad migas. Believe it or not, I disagree with a lot of what you say. Whether I feel like actually arguing about it depends on the day.