The Nation's Financial Condition

[Farfromgeneva]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... f=vuYGislZ

"Trucking is an industry long beset by grueling hours and declining pay. Few know those hardships better than port truck drivers.

Port truckers are typically independent contractors, without the benefits and protections of unionized transport sectors or even major companies with shipping divisions, like Amazon.com Inc. Their jobs require them to line up for hours to pick up cargo, and they’re paid only when they move it.

“The port truck driver, for decades now, has basically been the slack adjuster in the whole system,” said Steve Viscelli, an economic sociologist with the University of Pennsylvania who studies labor markets and supply chains. The entire system, he said, is built around free labor from truck drivers as they wait for containers."

Anyone ask Bezos why he needs so many truck drivers and damaged our the process? Enticing move for independents....solid pay, benefits, known hours (for the most part). If you've never been to an amazon distribution center or local satellite store for your territory, just sip a cup of coffee for a n hour or two out front. Their use of truckers and vans.....'drivers' is astonishing.

That's the last mile types you're talking about right? I've thought about looking into buying a few and hiring a couple of guys. Know someone who did this with more long haul, built a fleet of a dozen and even with that small a capacity is making real dough and paying his drivers pretty well.

[Farfromgeneva]

HEARD ON THE STREET
Inflation Is Approaching a Tipping Point at the Grocery Store
Once supermarket prices rise more than 5%, consumer buying habits may start to change

Nestlé has been able to pass on the higher cost of inputs such as plastic and transport to shoppers, a sign of healthy pricing power.
PHOTO: JASON LEE/REUTERS
By Carol Ryan
Oct. 20, 2021 7:42 am ET

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Confident consumers have swallowed higher supermarket prices so far this year, but the risk of indigestion is growing. For companies that make staple goods, asking for more money is delicate.

On Wednesday, the world’s biggest food company Nestlé NSRGY 1.32% said sales increased by an impressive 6.5% in the third quarter compared with the same period last year. Demand for its products is strong and Nestlé has been able to pass on the higher cost of inputs such as plastic and transport to shoppers, a sign of healthy pricing power. The company’s shares were up 3% in early trading.

Nestlé’s costs of goods sold will increase by around 4% this year, meaning it will shell out an extra 1.8 billion Swiss Francs, equivalent to $1.95 billion, on everything from packaging to trucking. Dannon yogurt-maker Danone said Tuesday that its input costs will be 8% higher this year. The difference can probably be explained by what the two companies sell. Nestlé has a big coffee business where hedges have protected it from spiraling commodity costs, although these will roll off soon.


Pricing Power
Components of Nestlé's quarterly sales growth, excluding exchange rate and​portfolio changes
Source: the company
*Measures volume and mix
Pricing
Real internal growth*
2020
'21
-2
0
2
4
6
8
10
%
Inflation is now so hot that staples companies feel they have no option but to pass it on. Nestlé, Danone and Procter & Gamble all said this week that consumers can expect higher bills at the grocery store. The question is how far they can push before shoppers defect to cheaper brands or buy fewer items.

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As a rule of thumb, price increases above 5% are harder to implement without changing buying patterns, according to supermarket and consumer goods executives. There are caveats: Companies that make more premium brands, such as Nestlé’s Nespresso coffee, have extra wiggle room. And consumers are less reactive to price changes in some countries than in others.

What the Inflation of the 1970s Can Teach Us Today
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0:00 / 7:55
What the Inflation of the 1970s Can Teach Us Today
What the Inflation of the 1970s Can Teach Us Today
The U.S. inflation rate reached a 13-year high recently, triggering a debate about whether the country is entering an inflationary period similar to the 1970s. WSJ’s Jon Hilsenrath looks at what consumers can expect next.
Still, food inflation is approaching more sensitive levels in the U.S., where prices for food consumed in the home increased 4.5% in September compared with the same month of 2020. In the euro area, prices for food, tobacco and alcohol were just 2% higher, according to Eurostat. One reason why store prices haven’t risen as much in Europe is because negotiations between manufacturers and grocers happen later there. Nestlé recently increased prices by 5% in the U.S., but is still in negotiations with supermarkets on the other side of the Atlantic. Europeans can expect to pay more from the beginning of next year.

Staples companies have ways to shield shoppers from the full impact of rising commodity costs, by running their factories more efficiently, for example. Consumers have also accumulated savings during the pandemic so may be willing for now to pay more than they usually would. But bosses at consumer goods manufacturers expect more inflation in their cost base next year. Shoppers’ brand loyalty will be tested.

[CU88]

An interesting read:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-13/ ... /100531994

[Farfromgeneva]

An interesting read:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-13/ ... /100531994

The Nobel Prize is the establishment

[youthathletics]

An interesting read:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-13/ ... /100531994

The Nobel Prize is the establishment

Automation was not a factor 30 years ago. IS it any more complicated than businesses hire based on their labor needs & managing their GM.

[Farfromgeneva]

An interesting read:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-13/ ... /100531994

The Nobel Prize is the establishment

Automation was not a factor 30 years ago. IS it any more complicated than businesses hire based on their labor needs & managing their GM.

Agreed, problem in economics stems from academia’s insistence that hard sciences are more important in the 60s-80s and then you had a conversion with Milton Friedman on economics away from its value as describing and narrating social systems to a math equation to tackle and subsequent belief economists are good predictors or the future. They’re not but we keep thinking that because of this essay:

https://www.sfu.ca/~dandolfa/friedman-1966.pdf

[a fan]

An interesting read:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-13/ ... /100531994

The Nobel Prize is the establishment

Automation was not a factor 30 years ago. IS it any more complicated than businesses hire based on their labor needs & managing their GM.

We've been watching folks grapple with so many open jobs post pandemic. These folks are, in many cases, simply getting part time work at a decent job, instead of a full time job with *hit pay, and horrible wages. Our entire understanding of work is being reevaluated in America.

They just had a job fair for Denver International Airport. They were hoping for 5000 to come for these higher than average paying jobs. But people talk, and folks know that adding an hour or two to your day because of the commute coupled with getting security, makes it so that these service jobs aren't worth the hassle.

And watching employers come to terms with the fact that they're underpricing their wages by, in many cases, 50% or more....is something to behold.

And if you look at the comments in the DIA story, you'll find a bunch of posters who are upset----and I can't square why----that folks aren't taking these jobs. Others are telling them the obvious: clearly they're not offering a high enough wage for these jobs. And labor, just like a product, is worth what the market will bear.

Fascinating times.

[Farfromgeneva]

Secular shift in power from Capital to labor after 30-40yrs. The kind of timeframe this happens organically over, might’ve been faster with less interference for political sake

The important thing is to find jobs with the potential for “non-linear” output as labor.

https://www.nber.org/papers/w25507

[youthathletics]

Secular shift in power from Capital to labor after 30-40yrs. The kind of timeframe this happens organically over, might’ve been faster with less interference for political sake

The important thing is to find jobs with the potential for “non-linear” output as labor.

https://www.nber.org/papers/w25507

Explain your last sentence a bit further, in a real life example career/job. I downloaded your link to read it further, thanks for that.

[youthathletics]

An interesting read:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-13/ ... /100531994

The Nobel Prize is the establishment

Automation was not a factor 30 years ago. IS it any more complicated than businesses hire based on their labor needs & managing their GM.

We've been watching folks grapple with so many open jobs post pandemic. These folks are, in many cases, simply getting part time work at a decent job, instead of a full time job with *hit pay, and horrible wages. Our entire understanding of work is being reevaluated in America.

They just had a job fair for Denver International Airport. They were hoping for 5000 to come for these higher than average paying jobs. But people talk, and folks know that adding an hour or two to your day because of the commute coupled with getting security, makes it so that these service jobs aren't worth the hassle.

And watching employers come to terms with the fact that they're underpricing their wages by, in many cases, 50% or more....is something to behold.

And if you look at the comments in the DIA story, you'll find a bunch of posters who are upset----and I can't square why----that folks aren't taking these jobs. Others are telling them the obvious: clearly they're not offering a high enough wage for these jobs. And labor, just like a product, is worth what the market will bear.

Fascinating times.

As an aside....I kinda cringe when I hear the word 'job', as it relates to looking for applicants. When I hear this, for some reason it sounds (to me) like a secondary or tertiary level of expectation. Interestingly enough, when I am interviewing applicants, I tend to always lean towards people that use the term career. To me it shows they have vision, a readiness and willingness to invest in themselves; rather than gimme my damned check and I'll see on Monday morning.

TO your point. For instance, I eat out every Friday at our local Italian restaurant. Wife and I roll in, waitress sees us, and brings over our drinks without asking, and places our order for the same thing, a fabulous tasting white pizza. I speak to the owner on occasion and he is clearly understaffed, to the point we do not like going on Saturday because that is the night our favorite waitress is off and service is not very good. He also said there is a double edged sword at play....the current staff is loving the extra hours and he knows he'd have to cut some of their hours to balance the work load.....he's running very thin labor and likely squeezing/using them for more GM. I think businesses are actually liking this, while saying be patient with us.

In our line of work, we monitor OT. When we begin to see OT hours approaching 400/yr with more of our associates, we know we can use more labor. If memory serves me, it was the avg, person has 2000 hrs/yr, and you typically only get about 75% output of each associate...~1600 hrs/yr. So when the OT approaches 400, you know you are running near max. And in our 62 years of business we have only ever had 1 layoff...and to be frank they were the bottom feeders and everyone knew it.

I also believe that more and more people are simply satisfied with less aggravation and daily stress as it relates to their home/work balance.

[Farfromgeneva]

Secular shift in power from Capital to labor after 30-40yrs. The kind of timeframe this happens organically over, might’ve been faster with less interference for political sake

The important thing is to find jobs with the potential for “non-linear” output as labor.

https://www.nber.org/papers/w25507

Explain your last sentence a bit further, in a real life example career/job. I downloaded your link to read it further, thanks for that.

I wrote this whole thing and it made me log in again and deleted it all. Happens frequently for some reason and my second stab is often not as good as the first one but:

There’s only so many hours one can work in a day so if you work in a job that’s all you can receive in output.

[# of hours worked] x [value per hourly output] = [expected earnings received for output]

With respect to skilled labor this is the problem and difference. Doctors and lawyers may bill at an hourly rate but they’re layering multiple bills on and find or build infrastructure to leverage. Bankers hold pipelines of business that overlaps.

Many white collar jobs had a curvilinear in weaker impact in that the “13th month bonus” of 5-15% on base isn’t huge, pays for a vacation. And Christmas plus a nicks into savings but it compounds as salary compounds and if you can get stock that compounds (think about holding a stock a long time and the dividend increases-the current yield may be 1-5%, or less, but if you owned it for a while at a cheaper price that 2% dividend might be 10-30% on your costs that’s thrown back at you-this worked for me with JP Morgan stock I bought after the morning whale in the low-mid 30s, dividend yields was negligible, maybe 1.5% back then but in addition to it being a 4 bagger on the price they’re paying over $5 on dividends which is like 15% on my cost basis). This is why a lot of
Middle management has gone away, certainly the lower skilled who’ve drifted up through tenure and hanging around the hoop, the true cost is high for what they do.

I think this is the last stand of the capital class in the dialectic relationship w labor over the last 30-50yrs plus demographic changes. Gig economy is stripping away the compounded gains of work now after capital traded pay increases for bennies only to go the defined contribution in the 80s and 90s. Silicon Valley strikes again! They’ve destroyed so much economic value while continuing to line the capital class without true innovation but we’re now at the point where the giving tree is only a stump for this group and the new tree will look differently.

Does this make sense? I can take another stab but point is hours in times price per hour is a limiting condition for workers to ever get out of being hand to mouth. I think we’re seeing the final stand for Capital in this run and the market forces are organically making this change occur, not politicians, well meaning or not.

[Farfromgeneva]

Let me add to this (just showered and was thinking but had to clean up my leg I tore the s**t out of cutting tree branches earlier to keep from infection-nice gouge inside knee now):

This isn’t to let labor off the hook. We’ve allowed business consolidation and oligopolies, or even monopolies because as labor we are also consumer and forgot that we work to live not to consume and wanted our stuff cheaper and more plentiful. Capital gave us all what we wanted and the failure of govt was not enforcing antitrust laws for 40yrs because true capitalism involves many similar and replaceable goods ands services (granularity of products and services not 1-5 options). In M&A they talk about revenue synergies but they rarely materialize. Are never underwritten by creditors who have asymmetric downside risk, only underwrite controllable cost synergies which are usually job cuts primarily, maybe some overlapping capex/r&D. Equity will underwrite revenue synergies because they have the upside but the incongruity is when PE derisks by going back into the marketplace and does a dividend recap (ie borrow more a few years in and pay back your equity and hve a free upside option on the business). This last part is an agent problem with the capital class as a whole and what the far left cant ever articulate very well which is why they sound whiny and cry about fairness, they sort of see what’s happening but don’t understand it because of the self selective nature of the experts they take in on their side.

Like everything else no one group is to blame, we all are. But of course on this thread the usual suspects will try to twist logic and blame the other side as is often the case I’m sure

[Farfromgeneva]

Secular shift in power from Capital to labor after 30-40yrs. The kind of timeframe this happens organically over, might’ve been faster with less interference for political sake

The important thing is to find jobs with the potential for “non-linear” output as labor.

https://www.nber.org/papers/w25507

Explain your last sentence a bit further, in a real life example career/job. I downloaded your link to read it further, thanks for that.

Does my answer make sense I can take another stab if not

[Farfromgeneva]

An interesting read:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-13/ ... /100531994

The Nobel Prize is the establishment

Automation was not a factor 30 years ago. IS it any more complicated than businesses hire based on their labor needs & managing their GM.

We've been watching folks grapple with so many open jobs post pandemic. These folks are, in many cases, simply getting part time work at a decent job, instead of a full time job with *hit pay, and horrible wages. Our entire understanding of work is being reevaluated in America.

They just had a job fair for Denver International Airport. They were hoping for 5000 to come for these higher than average paying jobs. But people talk, and folks know that adding an hour or two to your day because of the commute coupled with getting security, makes it so that these service jobs aren't worth the hassle.

And watching employers come to terms with the fact that they're underpricing their wages by, in many cases, 50% or more....is something to behold.

And if you look at the comments in the DIA story, you'll find a bunch of posters who are upset----and I can't square why----that folks aren't taking these jobs. Others are telling them the obvious: clearly they're not offering a high enough wage for these jobs. And labor, just like a product, is worth what the market will bear.

Fascinating times.

As an aside....I kinda cringe when I hear the word 'job', as it relates to looking for applicants. When I hear this, for some reason it sounds (to me) like a secondary or tertiary level of expectation. Interestingly enough, when I am interviewing applicants, I tend to always lean towards people that use the term career. To me it shows they have vision, a readiness and willingness to invest in themselves; rather than gimme my damned check and I'll see on Monday morning.

TO your point. For instance, I eat out every Friday at our local Italian restaurant. Wife and I roll in, waitress sees us, and brings over our drinks without asking, and places our order for the same thing, a fabulous tasting white pizza. I speak to the owner on occasion and he is clearly understaffed, to the point we do not like going on Saturday because that is the night our favorite waitress is off and service is not very good. He also said there is a double edged sword at play....the current staff is loving the extra hours and he knows he'd have to cut some of their hours to balance the work load.....he's running very thin labor and likely squeezing/using them for more GM. I think businesses are actually liking this, while saying be patient with us.

In our line of work, we monitor OT. When we begin to see OT hours approaching 400/yr with more of our associates, we know we can use more labor. If memory serves me, it was the avg, person has 2000 hrs/yr, and you typically only get about 75% output of each associate...~1600 hrs/yr. So when the OT approaches 400, you know you are running near max. And in our 62 years of business we have only ever had 1 layoff...and to be frank they were the bottom feeders and everyone knew it.

I also believe that more and more people are simply satisfied with less aggravation and daily stress as it relates to their home/work balance.

From my 1099 pool for part of my business in segregate those I refer to as “paycheck people” from those who act like it’s their own money. Those I pay a little better and call first even sometimes over more skilled or talented “check in and check out” people.

[Farfromgeneva]

An interesting read:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-13/ ... /100531994

The Nobel Prize is the establishment

Automation was not a factor 30 years ago. IS it any more complicated than businesses hire based on their labor needs & managing their GM.

We've been watching folks grapple with so many open jobs post pandemic. These folks are, in many cases, simply getting part time work at a decent job, instead of a full time job with *hit pay, and horrible wages. Our entire understanding of work is being reevaluated in America.

They just had a job fair for Denver International Airport. They were hoping for 5000 to come for these higher than average paying jobs. But people talk, and folks know that adding an hour or two to your day because of the commute coupled with getting security, makes it so that these service jobs aren't worth the hassle.

And watching employers come to terms with the fact that they're underpricing their wages by, in many cases, 50% or more....is something to behold.

And if you look at the comments in the DIA story, you'll find a bunch of posters who are upset----and I can't square why----that folks aren't taking these jobs. Others are telling them the obvious: clearly they're not offering a high enough wage for these jobs. And labor, just like a product, is worth what the market will bear.

Fascinating times.

As an aside....I kinda cringe when I hear the word 'job', as it relates to looking for applicants. When I hear this, for some reason it sounds (to me) like a secondary or tertiary level of expectation. Interestingly enough, when I am interviewing applicants, I tend to always lean towards people that use the term career. To me it shows they have vision, a readiness and willingness to invest in themselves; rather than gimme my damned check and I'll see on Monday morning.

TO your point. For instance, I eat out every Friday at our local Italian restaurant. Wife and I roll in, waitress sees us, and brings over our drinks without asking, and places our order for the same thing, a fabulous tasting white pizza. I speak to the owner on occasion and he is clearly understaffed, to the point we do not like going on Saturday because that is the night our favorite waitress is off and service is not very good. He also said there is a double edged sword at play....the current staff is loving the extra hours and he knows he'd have to cut some of their hours to balance the work load.....he's running very thin labor and likely squeezing/using them for more GM. I think businesses are actually liking this, while saying be patient with us.

In our line of work, we monitor OT. When we begin to see OT hours approaching 400/yr with more of our associates, we know we can use more labor. If memory serves me, it was the avg, person has 2000 hrs/yr, and you typically only get about 75% output of each associate...~1600 hrs/yr. So when the OT approaches 400, you know you are running near max. And in our 62 years of business we have only ever had 1 layoff...and to be frank they were the bottom feeders and everyone knew it.

I also believe that more and more people are simply satisfied with less aggravation and daily stress as it relates to their home/work balance.

Capacity utilization applies to labor no different than machines and tools, so you are correct. Just saying it differently. How much slack do you want and how much can you afford while running a long term operation. Also look at how much downtime people have as much as OT.

[youthathletics]

Secular shift in power from Capital to labor after 30-40yrs. The kind of timeframe this happens organically over, might’ve been faster with less interference for political sake

The important thing is to find jobs with the potential for “non-linear” output as labor.

https://www.nber.org/papers/w25507

Explain your last sentence a bit further, in a real life example career/job. I downloaded your link to read it further, thanks for that.

Does my answer make sense I can take another stab if not

For the most part, yes, thank you. I'll digest it a bit deeper....I'm in for lunch, while clearing a major thorn bush area along the woods line, between me and my neighbors house (on his property but he's not doing well, plus I love yard work).

The majority of our associates fit in to the skilled labor bucket,....

FFG WROTE: There’s only so many hours one can work in a day so if you work in a job that’s all you can receive in output.

[# of hours worked] x [value per hourly output] = [expected earnings received for output]

With respect to skilled labor this is the problem and difference.

...our now retired CFO would break this equation down and share it only with Op Managers and team leads...essentially value/employee. They often used this in conjunction with monitoring OT and to continually re-evaluate our processes, then comparing us to our equals in other parts of the country.

[a fan]

Let me add to this (just showered and was thinking but had to clean up my leg I tore the s**t out of cutting tree branches earlier to keep from infection-nice gouge inside knee now):

This isn’t to let labor off the hook. We’ve allowed business consolidation and oligopolies, or even monopolies because as labor we are also consumer and forgot that we work to live not to consume and wanted our stuff cheaper and more plentiful. Capital gave us all what we wanted and the failure of govt was not enforcing antitrust laws for 40yrs because true capitalism involves many similar and replaceable goods ands services (granularity of products and services not 1-5 options). In M&A they talk about revenue synergies but they rarely materialize. Are never underwritten by creditors who have asymmetric downside risk, only underwrite controllable cost synergies which are usually job cuts primarily, maybe some overlapping capex/r&D. Equity will underwrite revenue synergies because they have the upside but the incongruity is when PE derisks by going back into the marketplace and does a dividend recap (ie borrow more a few years in and pay back your equity and hve a free upside option on the business). This last part is an agent problem with the capital class as a whole and what the far left cant ever articulate very well which is why they sound whiny and cry about fairness, they sort of see what’s happening but don’t understand it because of the self selective nature of the experts they take in on their side.

Like everything else no one group is to blame, we all are. But of course on this thread the usual suspects will try to twist logic and blame the other side as is often the case I’m sure

You think labor has a hand in these choices you're spelling out? I don't. What am I missing?

And boy, do I agree about antitrust laws not being enforced...which is the main reason I laugh at the court packing with "conservative" judges who simply shovel more money to the coastal elites who own all the stock, and shove monopolies down the throats of the average TrumpConsumer.

[Farfromgeneva]

Let me add to this (just showered and was thinking but had to clean up my leg I tore the s**t out of cutting tree branches earlier to keep from infection-nice gouge inside knee now):

This isn’t to let labor off the hook. We’ve allowed business consolidation and oligopolies, or even monopolies because as labor we are also consumer and forgot that we work to live not to consume and wanted our stuff cheaper and more plentiful. Capital gave us all what we wanted and the failure of govt was not enforcing antitrust laws for 40yrs because true capitalism involves many similar and replaceable goods ands services (granularity of products and services not 1-5 options). In M&A they talk about revenue synergies but they rarely materialize. Are never underwritten by creditors who have asymmetric downside risk, only underwrite controllable cost synergies which are usually job cuts primarily, maybe some overlapping capex/r&D. Equity will underwrite revenue synergies because they have the upside but the incongruity is when PE derisks by going back into the marketplace and does a dividend recap (ie borrow more a few years in and pay back your equity and hve a free upside option on the business). This last part is an agent problem with the capital class as a whole and what the far left cant ever articulate very well which is why they sound whiny and cry about fairness, they sort of see what’s happening but don’t understand it because of the self selective nature of the experts they take in on their side.

Like everything else no one group is to blame, we all are. But of course on this thread the usual suspects will try to twist logic and blame the other side as is often the case I’m sure

You think labor has a hand in these choices you're spelling out? I don't. What am I missing?

And boy, do I agree about antitrust laws not being enforced...which is the main reason I laugh at the court packing with "conservative" judges who simply shovel more money to the coastal elites who own all the stock, and shove monopolies down the throats of the average TrumpConsumer.

I know you don’t but we do when we consume and work to consume rather than work to live and the subsequent things sept individually and collectively from corporations and our politicians. You’re view is highly parochial.

Here’s some evidence of our complicity

https://southpark.cc.com/video-clips/qc ... -wall-mart

https://southpark.cc.com/video-clips/o6 ... margaritas

[a fan]

Let me add to this (just showered and was thinking but had to clean up my leg I tore the s**t out of cutting tree branches earlier to keep from infection-nice gouge inside knee now):

This isn’t to let labor off the hook. We’ve allowed business consolidation and oligopolies, or even monopolies because as labor we are also consumer and forgot that we work to live not to consume and wanted our stuff cheaper and more plentiful. Capital gave us all what we wanted and the failure of govt was not enforcing antitrust laws for 40yrs because true capitalism involves many similar and replaceable goods ands services (granularity of products and services not 1-5 options). In M&A they talk about revenue synergies but they rarely materialize. Are never underwritten by creditors who have asymmetric downside risk, only underwrite controllable cost synergies which are usually job cuts primarily, maybe some overlapping capex/r&D. Equity will underwrite revenue synergies because they have the upside but the incongruity is when PE derisks by going back into the marketplace and does a dividend recap (ie borrow more a few years in and pay back your equity and hve a free upside option on the business). This last part is an agent problem with the capital class as a whole and what the far left cant ever articulate very well which is why they sound whiny and cry about fairness, they sort of see what’s happening but don’t understand it because of the self selective nature of the experts they take in on their side.

Like everything else no one group is to blame, we all are. But of course on this thread the usual suspects will try to twist logic and blame the other side as is often the case I’m sure

You think labor has a hand in these choices you're spelling out? I don't. What am I missing?

And boy, do I agree about antitrust laws not being enforced...which is the main reason I laugh at the court packing with "conservative" judges who simply shovel more money to the coastal elites who own all the stock, and shove monopolies down the throats of the average TrumpConsumer.

I know you don’t but we do when we consume and work to consume rather than work to live and the subsequent things sept individually and collectively from corporations and our politicians. You’re view is highly parochial.

Here’s some evidence of our complicity

https://southpark.cc.com/video-clips/qc ... -wall-mart

https://southpark.cc.com/video-clips/o6 ... margaritas

You're calling my view parochial....and then you hand me this? FFG, you're calling balls and strikes from behind a computer as a finance guy. Remember, I've been in manufacturing for 25 years. I'd say you're the one being parochial here.

In the South Park WalMart clip------when the local shop closes? What the F do you think that shop sells if WalMart can put them out of business? That's right-----they're selling the same garbage that they sell at WalMart, with a slightly higher markup.

We're talking about the ability of labor having a hand in economic choices because they're also consumers, right? That South Park example isn't an economic choice. That's the ILLUSION of choice. So sure, you have your choice between buying a cheap Chinese made hammer at WalMart, or you can buy that cheap Chinese hammer at the "local" store. In the end, the difference is tiny. Important, sure, but relative to the rest of the economic choices made? Tiny.

The consumer can ONLY make choices at retail...at the cash register. All the other economic choices are made upstream. And in 99.99% of the cases? The consumer has NO IDEA what they are buying, where the components were assembled, where the raw materials came from, where the machinery that assembled things came from, and on and on......

I've guest lectured on this many times at University of Michigan. It's REALLY complicated. But the consumer has little to no power over the market. I mean....what does it mean that a car is "American made"? I know less about cars than my 7 year old daughter does. But even I know that the majority of components, raw materials, software, hardware, etc. come from overseas. So it's not REALLY American car. So "buying American" isn't really a choice, in many, but not all, cases.

Don't make me break down what goes into a bottle of our Gin, and gets it to a shelf.

[Farfromgeneva]

Let me add to this (just showered and was thinking but had to clean up my leg I tore the s**t out of cutting tree branches earlier to keep from infection-nice gouge inside knee now):

This isn’t to let labor off the hook. We’ve allowed business consolidation and oligopolies, or even monopolies because as labor we are also consumer and forgot that we work to live not to consume and wanted our stuff cheaper and more plentiful. Capital gave us all what we wanted and the failure of govt was not enforcing antitrust laws for 40yrs because true capitalism involves many similar and replaceable goods ands services (granularity of products and services not 1-5 options). In M&A they talk about revenue synergies but they rarely materialize. Are never underwritten by creditors who have asymmetric downside risk, only underwrite controllable cost synergies which are usually job cuts primarily, maybe some overlapping capex/r&D. Equity will underwrite revenue synergies because they have the upside but the incongruity is when PE derisks by going back into the marketplace and does a dividend recap (ie borrow more a few years in and pay back your equity and hve a free upside option on the business). This last part is an agent problem with the capital class as a whole and what the far left cant ever articulate very well which is why they sound whiny and cry about fairness, they sort of see what’s happening but don’t understand it because of the self selective nature of the experts they take in on their side.

Like everything else no one group is to blame, we all are. But of course on this thread the usual suspects will try to twist logic and blame the other side as is often the case I’m sure

You think labor has a hand in these choices you're spelling out? I don't. What am I missing?

And boy, do I agree about antitrust laws not being enforced...which is the main reason I laugh at the court packing with "conservative" judges who simply shovel more money to the coastal elites who own all the stock, and shove monopolies down the throats of the average TrumpConsumer.

I know you don’t but we do when we consume and work to consume rather than work to live and the subsequent things sept individually and collectively from corporations and our politicians. You’re view is highly parochial.

Here’s some evidence of our complicity

https://southpark.cc.com/video-clips/qc ... -wall-mart

https://southpark.cc.com/video-clips/o6 ... margaritas

You're calling my view parochial....and then you hand me this? FFG, you're calling balls and strikes from behind a computer as a finance guy. Remember, I've been in manufacturing for 25 years. I'd say you're the one being parochial here.

In the South Park WalMart clip------when the local shop closes? What the F do you think that shop sells if WalMart can put them out of business? That's right-----they're selling the same garbage that they sell at WalMart, with a slightly higher markup.

We're talking about the ability of labor having a hand in economic choices because they're also consumers, right? That South Park example isn't an economic choice. That's the ILLUSION of choice. So sure, you have your choice between buying a cheap Chinese made hammer at WalMart, or you can buy that cheap Chinese hammer at the "local" store. In the end, the difference is tiny. Important, sure, but relative to the rest of the economic choices made? Tiny.

The consumer can ONLY make choices at retail...at the cash register. All the other economic choices are made upstream. And in 99.99% of the cases? The consumer has NO IDEA what they are buying, where the components were assembled, where the raw materials came from, where the machinery that assembled things came from, and on and on......

I've guest lectured on this many times at University of Michigan. It's REALLY complicated. But the consumer has little to no power over the market. I mean....what does it mean that a car is "American made"? I know less about cars than my 7 year old daughter does. But even I know that the majority of components, raw materials, software, hardware, etc. come from overseas. So it's not REALLY American car. So "buying American" isn't really a choice, in many, but not all, cases.

Don't make me break down what goes into a bottle of our Gin, and gets it to a shelf.

Stop. Just stop. You make liquor. I’ve worked almost every job imaginable from waiting tables to moving car parts in a warehouse to as a pt mailman. Everything after that I’m ignoring. You’re talking about a stupid consumer and then blaming everyone else for said consumer not asking questions about the money I spend. All the other words you wrote mean nothing beyond that.

Not to mention ignoring the actual point that were all buying a bunch of unnecessary s**t.