‘Stop the price-gouging’: Biden hits corporations over high consumer costs
Big business and junk fees prove easy targets for the White House in the inflation blame game.
Cool. So what’s he gonna do about it? Or was this it?
What can he do about it? We live in a free market society. All he can do is keep talking about it and hope the people get the message. Rebellion will start at the consumer level and go up, not the other way around. Main problem is the millions of people that rely on Fox for their news.
It will be harder to pass new laws in the current Congress, but he still has control over the executive branch. Hopefully some existing laws could be used.
He appointed the most aggressive FTC head in decades who is using the antitrust law we have to currently go after Google and Amazon.
She's also fighting a merger between Kroger and Albertsons, which would drastically raise grocery prices.
The FTC is also fighting the hedge fund buyout of preciously independent healthcare clinics, which has massively ramped up medical costs.
Not to mention breaking the real estate agent fee monopoly.
His executive branch has been busy as hell trying to help people.
He'll hire their execs to run various government agencies
I mean, you wouldn't want the politicians to lose their legal bribes generous donations over acting in our interests instead of the corporations, would you?
Will someone please think of the rich folks pockets?
You know.. He 'hit' them apparently.
Oh and passed an executive order, along with having his justice department pursue more antitrust cases than any other administration.
All he can do is back out his limp-dick economic policies that are destroying the country and creating this problem...but there's no chance of that.
This damage is literally the point of the policies. What people don't understand is that he's doing this on purpose.
I'm sure I'm going to be sorry for asking, but how in the world are you coming to this conclusion?
So the attorney general can open an investigation on this asshat profiteering off of hand sanitizer but when it comes to companies price gouging in the wake of the pandemic we get this limp dick response? Sure I'm glad he said something but we need more
Apparently a state of emergency needs to have been declared for them to actually do anything about price gouging directly.
I read about it when Southwest airlines went completely down for a week last year over the holidays and I was stranded somewhere. Other airlines had astronomical prices and car rentals were over $500 for one day. It was disgusting. But apparently there was nothing to be done.
They need to change the rules surrounding it because they're not working. But any amount of government intervention in the economy gets conservatives screaming about "communism," or socialism, or whatever scapegoat they're using that day that they don't know the actual definition of. And yet, if there's no government intervention in the economy it's "Biden's not doing enough/Biden is personally raising gas prices every week" etc.
Of course there wasn't a single peep from them when Trump was fucking shit up, other than those "this is Biden's America" memes when Biden hadn't even taken office yet and the photos were a year old. Nothing will get done about it as long as conservatives have any say in congress. But they'll always be the one's complaining and pointing the finger at "the libruls" while profiting.
Corporations: "or what?"
He's gonna blast em, and they will officially be On Notice
Ooo he might even slam them!
He'll make a tweet that starts with "Let me be clear...".
Make them, under force of real economic consequences, or this is just begging.
I thought the President doesn't control the price of goods...
They don't. Congress with the President could but won't.
I've no illusions friend. Neither the Republicans nor the Neoliberals aka 90+ percent of Office holding Democrats have the slightest interest in helping anyone, only taking bribes and reinforcing their party's power.
This nation is over. Reaganomics saw to that and Citizens United dashed the last of the faintest of rational hopes for self-repair. This is just leftover momentum. This labor camp we call the US will eventually collapse under the weight of its own corruption, but until then, we suffer generationally with zero recourse.
No one with any power, no one from the right families is coming to help their capital livestock. This exploitation machine is exactly what they wanted and spent decades lining pockets to achieve.
Old man wags his finger.
Old man yells at cloud, functionally.
Corporations: lol no
He probably went to go buy his own ice cream for the first time in 3 years and said "holy shit."
Any legislation to go with that or are you just asking nicely?
I'd be surprised if even saying this didn't have political ramifications. There's nothing, besides; military budget, tax breaks to millionaires, and their own pay raises, that would get through both houses of Congress right now.
Asking nicely is at least virtue signaling, maybe it'll be something we can address if a couple R's ever see the consequences of their illegal actions.
In presidential systems like the US has legislation originates from congress. The President only has veto power over legislation, and controls the enforcement of existing legislation. They can't force congress to create new legislation, though of course they can propose legislation (anyone can do that). This is very different from parliamentary systems where the Prime Minister is the head of the majority party of the parliament, and can thus directly propose legislation and get their party to support it.
He added, “come on, man”
Oh shit, he means business.
“My good friends in congress will, well they uh, I mean titwinkle, and corn pop was a bad dude!”
Corporations after seeing how Black Friday netted over $9.8 billion: Uhhhh...no. According to these numbers, people LoVe the prices!
That was $10b in online sales, not total.
That’s almost 10 billion of sale prices though, for products they literally needed to offload.
And while a record amount, it was only 7.5% above normal, coming off all this Covid stuff it’s no wonder people are cutting loose and splurging a bit.
Or they just know that Americans would rather go into significant debt, than having a lighter Christmas and/or buying less for a year or two.
I'm glad I have friends who can live without needing presents every year to feel validated on keeping a friendship alive.
I keep hearing other people just tear themselves apart because they worry about "ohhh I need to go shopping next week!" or "I can't figure out what this person wants who barely gives a shit about me but I need to gift them SOMETHING!"
Like damn people, is it worth it that much to gift someone things at the cost of your own sustainability?
Windfall taxes
Actually do something about it you crypt keeper lookin ass fuck
Like what?
Pick the worst offender corporation, invite their whole executive board to DC, and when they arrive, guillotine them on the white house lawn.
...then repeat this request.
Dude, they are gouging because they want you gone so they can have more tax breaks. Fuck then over already.
Bad corpos!
*slaps them on the wrist
Corpos = "Slap me harder Daddy Biden! Tell me that I am destroying the middle and the working class for pursuit of increaseing shareholder value and increased profits."
Stop slapping and start jailing. No teeth will never stop this.
You generally want laws to do that kind of thing. Good luck trying to get a price fixing law through the House.
We have antitrust laws. Republicans and neoliberals have de-funded the agencies that would enforce those laws to the extent that they can't take action on 99% of what's happening.
"If only my donors would pretty please stop that would be great. Consequences? We need to keep the elderly out of government, and ban lobbying. Until we do BOTH of those things, nothing will change and will only get worse. VOTE.
Yeah! Say more words, Joe. That'll teach em.
Oh thank god, I was worried brows would continue to remain unfurrowed.
MALARKEY DETECTED
Thanks Biden
Kinda late as always, but I guess better than never.
It's class warfare. The rich exploit the poor and middle class. We need comically large cigar tip cutters again.
Well I am glad he finally said something but it's too little too late. How many more suicides were there this year in the US versus say, 2019? I'll bet those numbers have experienced inflation. All so Walmarts stock can go up by a dollar.
Corporations: https://youtu.be/yWULCfJ2PGA?si=0kL1gFxcjR6HMN1S
I was saying boourns.
Reminds me of this classic: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ9K9kpgkzg
I haven't found a comment talking about inflation
If the inflation is even close to the price hike on groceries, we are fucked.
Inflation rate is the government talking about themselves. So...
They were probably all deleted.
Biden blames someone else for inflation under his administration. I fixed it.
A year too late
'Stop the money printing': Biden hits Federal Reserve over excessive inflation...
Is what it should say.
What are YOU doing about it? Not Biden -- YOU: the person reading this comment.
I can tell you my overall cost of living since 2020 has plummeted, not because I haven't faced inflation like everyone else, but because I stopped spending on most extra things. For example: not eating out anymore, cancelled all streaming subscriptions, flexed what I eat based upon coupons and deals at the grocery store (still healthy), I drive much less, etc..
If you keep buying stuff when prices go up, this keeps demand high and, therefore, prices high.
Edit: So far people are saying they are doing nothing different... just continuing to blame corporations. It's both greedy corporations and people's fault. If the costs for basic goods and shelter go up, why wouldn't you adjust?
The prices for fixed costs have gone up, too. People need a place to live, the health to keep living, and ways of ensuring access to both, and the costs of all of those have gone up as well. A not insignificant chuck of people don't have discretionary spending to cut (not to mention how stressful living paycheck-to-paycheck on the bare essentials can be). Yes, it is certainly worth reevaluating budgets and determining where expenses can be lowered, but those margins have been getting thinner for a long while.
No, you don't get it. Corporations aren't greedy, you're at fault for needing food and shelter.
I agree many things have gone up, BUT over the last couple years people kept purchasing without adjustment. I've adjusted my grocery purchases (and I'm a nerd who tracks this in spreadsheets) to the point where my monthly costs have gone up 4% over the last 3 years.
New vehicles have shot up in price and people were still waiting in line to buy more! Trillion+ in car loan debt in the U.S.. Many of these folks could have bought a used car, fixed their old car, or just waited and purchased later. The numbers are there and support what I'm saying. I'm still driving a very old car (> 15 years old) because I think it's idiotic to buy another one right now. It sucks, but better than blowing my hard earned cash. This is coming from someone who can afford to ignore interest rates and pay cash and I still won't do it.
At the end of the day corporations will always be greedy, but only if they can. If people stop buying they can no longer be greedy (supply vs demand). We may be at the point now where people have over extended themselves so much that they simply can't afford the dumb purchases anymore which means corporations have extracted the maximum from people's wallets. Sad situation, but I blame both corporations and people.
I stopped spending on extra things too, and it's really helped. I sold my house so I didn't have to pay a mortgage and moved into my car which I never drive because buying gasoline will keep the price high. I also cancelled all of my streaming services, so I stare at the ceiling to entertain myself. I eat exclusively organic dirt that's on sale because I stopped splurging on food. Why don't people just spend less money?
This comment made me think I accidentally posted on Reddit. My edit still stands (I was pretty confident it would for a while).
I spent thousands on Black Friday sales to have a good Christmas as a family for the first time in what, four years?
So I guess you can say I’m doing my part to stimulate the economy.
Also I dunno about you, but I think my wife would get depressed if I told her there was no more eating out.
Black Friday purchases are a good idea. It tells corporations, "I'm willing to spend at this lower price point."
Maybe try and cook your wife her favorite meal at home or just go out less often? If going out to eat is the only way to keep your wife happy then you could look elsewhere to cut costs if you need to.
"Stop the price-gouging...", the unspoken bit after is "... they're starting to catch on"
Capital is king, and Joe kneels at the throne at the end of the day.
He doesn't kneel, he's the dad that fucking shoots you if you try to play with his kid's toys
Yeah, it's totally nothing to do with his policies.
You are correct
What policies, specifically?