Kamrade Kamala's Solution to Inflation - New Policy Proposal

It was terrible policy and failed miserably.

 

A winding, twisting river.

 

Disagree.

 

Pretty soon you'll be able to conserve a lot of energy and refer to "the non-democratically appointed democratic socialist communist party presidential candidate" simply as "Madam President."
At that point, :

 

Yep, inflation has been under control for a year now. Truly 2022 was the bad year, started tapering off in mid 2023.

If you asked right wingers a dozen eggs must cost $100 by now, and a Toyota Camry $150,000. Glad to see all Kamala had to do was propose a solution to inflation, and now the right wing understands the post-pandemic inflation spike is over. Everyone is on the same page now. Political masterstroke.

 

Of course democrats will disagree. But some centrist and center right anti trumpers who lean free market, like me, will think this is terrible. Absolutely awful.

I put this in the neighborhood of Bidens loan forgiveness programs. Disastrous policy and politically.

 

Price controls are bad.

Nothing inherently bad about what is discussed here.

Not even sure Harris is bringing any “new” policy here, just sounds like doubling down on this? (From 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us...by-targeting-anticompetitive-acts-2023-07-19/

 

Fair point. You should post Trump's plan to deal with inflation, so we can compare. It's probably in his desk under his healthcare and infrastructure plans.

 

While I cannot speak for him I would have praised Trump if he made a similar proposal. That being said it would have never happened considering the way Donald Trump is the pocket of corporate America. I supported Trump's Operation Warp Speed one of his few positive initiatives and its role in developing the Covid vax, an accomplishment that he never mentions.

 

Soooo... Trump's method of bringing down inflation is to bring down energy costs via more drilling and deregulation. Kamala's is price controls. This could be the beginning of the wakening of America. She finally stepped in it. We'll see what she says tomorrow. If she doubles down tomorrow, this could open up things a bit.

 

The US hit new records in both oil production and energy production in 2023... Trump has dumb ideas.

 

Agree. The left won't dare say they disagree with their candidates policies...

 

That is hilarious. Too funny.

 

I honestly haven't been following the developments but did read today about negotiations specific to the first 10 drugs. That might suggest that more negotiations are planned.

Biden administration releases prices of 10 drugs in Medicare negotiations, says U.S. will save $6 billion in first year

The Biden administration on Thursday released prices for the first 10 prescription drugs that were subject to landmark negotiations between drugmakers and Medicare, a milestone in a controversial process that aims to make costly medications more affordable for older Americans.

The government estimates that the new negotiated prices for the medications will lead to around $6 billion in net savings for the Medicare program in 2026 alone when they officially go into effect, or 22% net savings overall. That is based on the estimated savings the prices would have produced if they were in effect in 2023, senior administration officials told reporters Wednesday.

The Biden administration also expects the new prices to save Medicare enrollees $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs in 2026 alone.

“For so many people, being able to afford these drugs will mean the difference between debilitating illness and living full lives,” Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, told reporters. “These negotiated prices. They’re not just about costs. They are about helping to make sure that your father, your grandfather or you can live longer, healthier.”

 

I agree with that generally (especially on price controls). However, there are issues with a lack of competition in specific parts of the food industry, such as retail and packaging. Let me start with retailing. I am going to take a couple of markets of observation: a high competition area (Maryland, where I now live, which has numerous grocery chains) vs. a low competition area (such as Florida- where Publix dominates).

Most people don't realize that grocery stores make revenue from both the manufacturers (in the form of fees for shelf space and discounts for purchasing products) and from consumers (in the form of sales). This is known as a two-sided market, which is characterized by indirect network effects. Customers gain value from the stores because they carry many manufacturers' products and manufacturers get value because there are many end customers.

Competition is a little strange in markets like this because pricing is a bit odd. The importance of one side of the market to the other means that one side often subsidizes the other, at least to an extent. So how does the structure work with each form of competition.

In high competition environments, consumers often multi-home (i.e., use multiple platform products- which in this case is the grocery store). As such, they have high knowledge of different prices and are good at "negotiating." As such, the market has to relatively subsidize them more and push back harder on manufacturers, who need access to these markets. Now the manufacturers could, in theory push back, by refusing to carry a product in a store, knocking them out of business, but manufacturers are often a bit too distributed to do that and less able to legally collude.

In low competition environments, consumers often single-home (i.e., use one store, like Publix in Florida). As such, they have low knowledge of different prices and are relatively poor at "negotiating." That makes it more attractive to raise prices on them and shift the subsidy to the manufacturers, to maintain that elite position.

I'm not at all in favor of price controls, but there is a reasonable argument that can be made for concerns about competition in these environments. Normally, my inclination would be to say that this doesn't matter a ton because Amazon and Wal-Mart exist as good alternatives, but, in practice, that is not what I am observing. Consumers don't generally seem to view those as terrific alternatives based on their behavior and the market's behavior.

 

Harris could announce tomorrow that she was building a border wall, lowering taxes, and voting for Trump and MAGA fans would criticize the policy.

 

Right, because you know how all those MAGA fans were demanding price controls on food.

 

I read this and all I could think of is the famous Rick James quote:

 

In his case, it's a prime example of what happens when you live inside the academia bubble.

 

Once again Kamala Harris has not proposed price controls and if more drilling is the answer to inflation the Biden/Harris Administration must be following the right policy since petroleum production is currently higher than it was at any time during the Trump Administration.