Higher grocery prices ARE a result of greedflation, investigation shows:

[CousinIT]

https://www.wral.com/story/wral-investigates-greedflation-and-other-drivers-behind-inflation-at-the-grocery-store/21380917/

MY PERSONAL TAKE: Some people blame "government spending" but really, this now 5-yearlong campaign to jack up prices is at this point just plain GREEDFLATION. The author offers NO explanation other than the usual pablum ("ah.. well, bird flu and.. ah, well...Ukraine....blah blah) but no REAL REASONS other than corporate GREED as to why prices are high. They DO mention corporate profits which were already historically high and now are even higher than they've been in over 50 years. So, yep. It's just GREED. As for what consumers can do? Stop buying the stuff you like to eat of course. Those favorite snacks that no one else makes? Yea, stop eating those. Buy beans and rice and peanut butter. Are prices going to go back down? Zero chance. Because corporate GREED pays (well it pays the billionaires, it costs the rest of us our fortunes or forces us to diets of peanut butter and beans/rice).

As prices continue to rise, a rising number of Americans think corporate greed is the real driver. One recent poll showed 59% of people believe in so-called "greedflation." Corporate greed is now tied with government spending in the public's perception of what's behind inflation.

"They're in the business to make money," says Gerald Cohen, the chief economist at UNC's Kenan Flagler business school. For years, WRAL Investigates has tracked corporate quarterly and annual earnings reports.

Cohen says that and other data do prove companies are making more.

"That kind of share that we’ve seen, around 17.5% of output goes to corporate profits, is higher than the average of the last 50-plus years," Cohen said.

[dalton99a]

1. It is sadistic abuse of the working poor and folks on fixed income

basically people who don't have options

[PatSeg]

30. Yes, it is guaranteed profits

as those people are going to buy food regardless of the price. Food is not an optional expenditure. They might buy less food, but still spend the same amount of money. A win-win for corporate greed.

[OldBaldy1701E]

46. Now one can see why all those HOAs ban big gardens.

It is all part of the same plan. You pay and they get rich. You cannot be self sufficient. They will not allow it.

[PatSeg]

47. Good point

They can't make much profit off of people who are self-sufficient.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

49. Fuck HOAs

When we shopped for a house, we were determined not to buy a house that was in a HOA neighborhood.

[Ligyron]

59. Smart move.

Did the same myself.

[OldBaldy1701E]

68. Unfortunately, I live in one.

I was not aware of it when we moved here. (A long story for another time.) Plus, we did not sign anything in reference to said HOA. However, it is still your typical HOA. The board is made up of five people. Three seem indifferent, one is a complete milquetoast (that one is the president, btw), and one is trying to make Hitler look like a humanitarian. That last one is now trying to ban cannabis in the entire neighborhood. In this state, it has been decriminalized and has been used in a medical sense for many years now. That person cannot do this, but they are going to try. This after that person spent thousands of dollars to try and make the geese not come onto the property because they scare that person's dog. This person is convinced that only their vision and rules should be in place and everyone else should just follow along.

I hate HOAs. They serve no purpose other than to protect property values and to give wannabe dictators a means to live their twisted dreams. If I spend the kind of money required to purchase property these days, I am certainly not going to enter into anything that is going to dictate to me what I can and cannot do with said purchase. (Beyond the usual things like making a meth lab or using the house as a storage place for my exotic cats or the like.) HOAs are just there to make sure you are a good little property owner... per their idea of what you should be doing with your property.

If and when I ever get out of this place, I will live in a cardboard box in a ditch before I live anywhere that has an HOA! (And, trust me, were it not for my health, I probably would already be in it!)

[SalamanderSleeps]

64. Grocery Giant Kroger Rakes in Billions While Food Prices Soar

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Kroger reported $736 million in Q4 2023 profits with annual profits of over $2.1 billion—sky-high totals that comes after last month’s Consumer Price Index report revealed that cooling inflation was stilted by stubbornly high food prices. In February, the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) filed a new lawsuit seeking to block the proposed merger between grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons, a move Accountable.US praised as a major step towards cracking down on big food industry price-gouging.

//Press Release//

"It’s been years of corporate price gouging and Americans are sick and tired of bolstering corporate profits at their own expense. If a grocery giant like Kroger is allowed to merge with Albertsons, American families would have less access to food while paying even higher prices. Even now, with the merger stalled, the oligopoly of U.S. grocery stores has taken advantage of its customers, keeping prices high while raking in huge profits.”

https://accountable.us/grocery-giant-kroger-rakes-in-billions-while-food-prices-soar/

Daylight robbery.

[ProfessorGAC]

69. If One Looks At Their Financial Statements...

...one sees that it's not just record profits.
The net income of Kroger & Albertsons are rising faster than the rate of revenue.
This can only happen if the prices are rising at a higher % than the rate of increase of their costs.
I also looked at General Mills & PepsiCo. Same thing!
So, everyone is increasing prices well in excess of the increase in cost to provide.
These are increases in excess of savings that could be obtained through productivity or efficiency gains.
Companies can make record profits year over year simply BECAUSE of inflation. But, when prices go up at rates easily outpacing cost to provide, they ARE a cause of inflation.
Their own publicly available data makes that clear.
Rs like to talk about "entitlement". But, they don't talk about the version of it where corporations feel entitled to increase profits at the expense of the health of the economy in which they function.

[B.See]

56. It's also a sadistic abuse of working and middle income Americans, families, and

young up and comers trying to get on their feet. On EVERYONE not of that wealthy, and corporate elite.

A deliberate corporate SABOTAGE of the American economy, in an effort to install a WEALTHY, corporate elitist DICTATOR in the Oval Office.

[Model35mech]

2. Yep. That's why Yellen's efforts using traditional anti-inflation tactics failed

to curb the rising prices, intended to compensate producers for "lost" sales, rather than rising costs of production.

"There ought to be laws that prevent that". But, the producers require "All the market will bear"

The final solution to inflation is for consumers to curb spending where feasible on too expensive goods and services.

THAT is how the market demonstrates it will NOT bear the costs.

[Wednesdays]

22. "...consumers to curb spending..."

And when consumers curb spending, the end result is...wait for it...RECESSION!
Woo-hoo!

[JT45242]

3. That is the problem with not using antitrust laws for 40 years post reagan

Since at most 4-5 and usually 2-3 companies control 80% of each consumer category, there is no incentive to reign in greed.

Poultry is 85% controlled by 3 companies for example.

A handful of companies control the gasoline prce market.

About 5 major grocery chains set prices.

If we would break them apart or go after them for collusion then inflation might go down.

[dalton99a]

4. Grocery stores are in an arms race to RAISE prices, not lower them

It is delusional to think there is no collusion.

[llmart]

12. Grocery stores

I remember a time when I was a young wife and mother when I had 5 grocery stores within a ten mile radius to choose from (not specialty grocery stores). I'm in a fairly populous town and we have two, one of which is Kroger. That's it unless you are one of the wealthy people who have no problem paying the outrageous prices the smaller, family owned specialty stores around town. Those people are gouging like crazy.

[Rebl2]

20. I am in

what I consider a small town of around 28,000 and we have four grocery store's, and a fifth if you count Walmart. One is more like a small neighborhood store and their main thing is selling meat (butcher shop) but they have other groceries that are way overpriced. Prices at the other stores have definitely gone up.
When they used to figure inflation in the past, I always thought they left out the price of energy and food. Am I wrong?

[markodochartaigh]

33. Yes, without food and energy prices

that is called "core inflation". Food and energy prices usually fluctuate the most so sometimes economists find it useful to leave them out of calculations. Of course that doesn't mean that working families can magically skip paying for them because they increased too much. I find it unhelpful when the media mentions core inflation as if working people shouldn't concern ourselves with the increasing food and energy prices since they are "too volatile" (increasing faster than pundits would like to admit).


https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/coreinflation.asp#:~:text=Key%20Takeaways-,Core%20inflation%20is%20the%20change%20in%20the%20costs%20of%20goods,too%20volatile%20or%20fluctuate%20wildly.

[Rebl2]

42. Agree

Seems like when it is a republican president they ignore cost of fuel, food and medical expenses. Maybe it’s just my imagination, but I can remember thinking that in the past when we had republican presidents.

[Farmer-Rick]

28. As a small farmer

Who is always on the look out for a good market to sell my produce to, grocery stores have become monopoly corporations making profits off undercutting farm prices.

Do you think the farmer is making that $10 for a 4 oz bag of spring mix of lettuces? Not a chance.

Grocery stores have contracts with distributors who buy the cheapest products they can get from a farmer. It use to be local farmers but now they buy from any state with the cheapest price. In the case of Walmart, they have their own distributor built into their corporation. And in many cases they even control the farmer.

I once tried to sell my lamb to a grocery chain. I had to get in touch with their headquarter's purchase center and they sent me a huge packet to fill out. I had to tell them everything from the type of grasses my flock ate to where I got my potable water. Only at the very end did they ask about vaccinations and organic practices.

It was pages and pages of details that in many cases I didn't have. My flock eats what mother nature decides to grow on my fields. I boost it every few years with specific grass seeds. But for the most part it is what mother nature provides.

So, I filled out the pages and send it off. They come back with more questions and "recommendations". If I wanted to sell my lamb to them, I had to feed them this, not do that, restrict the sheep movements to certain size paddocks, get better control over the grasses in my fields, bottle feed and ween early. A lot more work and expenses to follow. In the end I declined because the price per pound they were willing to pay was way less than what I was getting at farmer's markets.

So, basically they wanted feed lot lambs, raised on specific grasses with lots of grains and bottle fed from birth.

So the corporations have got Americans trained to buy from their chain grocery stores that they fill with the cheapest foods they can find.

This has pretty well wiped out small farmers and taken away most of our markets in the local area.

Corporations never create jobs they only take jobs away from local communities and then you are forced to buy their crap. They have wiped out most all their smaller competitions and have reduced the quality of foods available for purchase. Did you know this year I planted 20 different kind of radishes? How many does a chain store sell?

Not buying food is not the answer. The solution as a consumer is to grow a garden, raise your own food, buy direct from farmers and join food coops.

The solution as a society is to enforce antitrust laws.

[dchill]

5. I knew that.

[progressoid]

6. Wonder how many major news outlets will risk angering their advertisers to spread this news.

Or they can just keep talking about people who are angry at Biden for the prices.

[CousinIT]

9. I RARELY hear news or media even mention corporate profits when talking about inflation.

They DELIBERATELY leave that part of the story OUT. As you say they talk to those angry at Biden AS IF he controls corporate greed. Pfft.

Government spending is not the culprit either. At least not this time. So all this blaming Biden is just idiots barking up the wrong tree.

[underpants]

11. We never get the full equation from the media

I say equation because I look at things mathematically.

Like
How many people getting any kind of assistance DO work?
90+% of money to Ukraine stays IN the US.
Where do all the guns in DC/Chicago come from?
How did ISIS (Wahhabists) get an area to operate in after millennia of not having any place to start their operations?
How many dairy farmers exist compared to 30 years ago? - I did see this discussed on Morning Joe recently.
How do our cable/phone bills compare to, say, Europe?
Why do almost all terms and conditions we don’t read and sign off on include arbitration?

Etc
Etc
Etc

[CousinIT]

13. I'd love to see the media execs confronted with this.

The sides of each story they CHOOSE not to mention or cover and why.

[underpants]

25. I wanted to check my facts on this and look what I found.

Amtrak used to have a stop under the James River bridge between Newport News and Suffolk. Taxis would be lined up when they knew trains coming from the north were due to take whomever got off the train over to Suffolk. They’d bring them back for northbound trains and these people would get back on the train usually with bags of handguns. That and I95 was referred to as the Iron Pipeline.

Seriously, a Yelp page with the top 10 gun stores in Suffolk. Just the top TEN too so there could be more.
https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Gun+Shop&find_loc=Suffolk%2C+VA

[Ontheboundry]

34. This is not entirely true

M1 velocity is up 17% from last year ll, meaning inflation government spending is somewhat the culprit. This is not saying corporate greed is also not to blame but they can both be why at the same time

It is one thing I look at cuz it's a driving force

[senseandsensibility]

55. Yes, I knew they weren't (and probably won't) cover it

but I never thought of the advertiser connection.

[Emile]

7. Predatory Capitalism

Republicans can't blame President Biden for predatory capitalism when they're trying to make him out to be a socialist.

[KPN]

14. They won't. They'll just blame him for inflation.

It’s just another projection in effect on their part.

[underpants]

10. We didn't really think food & gas were going to let people keep all that 2020 money in THEIR pockets did we?

And once those industries saw that they could jack up prices, of course they continued it.

[leftstreet]

15. Why should some stockholders make less profit than others?

Your shares in Kroger should continually generate profit in the same way as your shares in Eli Lily and Lockheed Martin. It's not greed, it's Capitalism.

[Prairie_Seagull]

16. Supply and demand may, may work at the Macro level

But IMO has always been 'used' to increase profits at the Micro level. Greedflation.

[Fritz Walter]

17. And their massive profits can also end up in PACs

For instance, Pube-licks’ (Publix) made a six-figure donation to Ron Death-sentence’s Goobernatorial SuperPAC a couple years ago. Ever since, I have boycotted that grocery chain. If they can write off that much money for political influence, they don’t need my business!

[Puppyjive]

18. Yes, stop buying food and houses

We need to eat and we need shelter. We have choices. I stopped buying some of my favorite foods and wrote letters. At some point, you just say no. There is also a lot of buyer regrets in home ownership. People are now admitting they have overpaid for real estate and are forever in debt. Don't move right now if you can avoid it. The industry brought this bullshit on. Enough is enough.

[OMGWTF]

19. There's a boycott of all Kellog's cereals

to protest their greed. It must be working because every time I go to the store they are always on sale.

[elocs]

50. I've boycotted Kellogg's cereals for years now, but I've boycotted all the rest of the other sugary crap as well

and I'm much healthier for it.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

21. NPR's Fresh Air yesterday

Discussion about what has happened to cause a lack of competition for grocery stores. Truly eye opening. Listen at link below.

Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser says mergers and acquisitions have created food oligopolies that are inefficient, barely regulated and sometimes dangerous. His new documentary is Food, Inc. 2.

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/18/1245541903/journalist-says-were-basically-guinea-pigs-for-a-new-form-of-industrialized-food

[AllaN01Bear]

23. 5 year? like for ever.

[DFW]

24. On June 29th, I'll really be able to make an informed comment

Last year, when my wife and I arrived in Boston for our annual vacation, we noticed people carrying large reinforced plastic bags full of fresh vegetables and fruit away from someplace. They were all loaded down, and we asked ourselves if someone was giving it away or something?

We followed the trail on foot until we came to a vast open air farmers market, right in the heart of Boston's north end. I figured, well, this is the North End, so the vendors must all be Italian. Maybe 50 years ago they were, but now they were all Moroccan. OK, whatever. So we checked out what they were offering, and couldn't believe it. Huge eggplants? $1 each. Cherries? $1 for a pound. Lemons? 6 for $1. A big container of fresh raspberries? $1. And so on. We left there as laden down as everybody else. Got a few stares as we walked back into our hotel! What's the kitchen staff doing taking the guest elevators? For about $20, we loaded up on fresh produce that we guessed would cost us roughly $175 at the Stop and Shop in Provincetown on Cape Cod. How these merchants--and there must have been 50 of them--could offer all this stuff at this price, we didn't (and still don't) understand. If the price has gone up 50% since last year, it's still an incredible bargain. How these people can make a living selling all this fresh food at these prices remains a complete mystery to me. I don't know how they even make their gas money to and from town. But there were dozens of them doing a brisk business--at those prices no wonder!!

This can't be unique. There have to be other markets in other cities like this. But holy cheapo, Batman, this exists right under our noses. OK, they have no overhead, no employees to pay (clearly all family operations), no rent except their market stalls, but considering the price of housing in Boston, they were not walking to work. It DOES make one wonder: do the costs of trucks, supermarkets, insurance, marketing, personnel, building inspection, utilities etc. really make up 85% of the food prices we are paying?

On June 29th, we'll be back at that market in Boston, and I'll let y'all know if everything is still as cheap as it was last year.

[CousinIT]

32. We have farmer's markets where I live. They are VERY busy.

Especially now with the corprat price gougers vacuuming up everyone's grocery money.

I'll be interested to know what you report back once you return from your trip!

[DFW]

43. We have had a farmers market in my town for the last 800 years

They are usually as expensive or more so than the stores. They usually have fresher stuff, but they really don’t present any savings. The three times a week is as much of a social event and meeting point as anything else.

How the market in Boston works out as a successful business model for 50 Moroccan families based in Massachusetts remains a complete mystery to me.

[Mark.b2]

52. We have two large farmers' markets nearby. Going to them is a Saturday ritual...

most weekends. But, they ain't cheap. It's a luxury to shop. The fresh food is so good.

It annoys the hell out of me, but four tomatoes run $6! And yeah, we always buy eight to get us through the week. They are soon good.

And take extra cash if you like strawberries, blackberries or blueberries.

[Prairie_Seagull]

67. My oldest daughter, a teacher, as a side hustle,

Does 'farmers markets' on weekends. In the same markets as 'organic' farmers. She sells her own line of hand-made bees wax candles. She does pretty well for herself and the side hustle is needed to augment her insufficient pay.

Regardless, we have not noticed any price dip in table veggies out here in Spokane Wa. This is organics and usually come at a premium. Getting better but still a premium. Rinse the hell out of anything not organic and this will only get you so far but better than nada. Daughter has her degree in Organic food systems and is a teacher. Go figure.

Good Saturday morning DUers.

[littlemissmartypants]

26. We throw away way too much food as well.

It's a complex equation that few take the time to think about. We could definitely survive on less and throw away less. We've become too hypnotized by abundance and our so-called "throw away" society.

Food for thought.

❤️

Food Loss and Waste
In the United States, food waste is estimated at between 30–40 percent of the food supply. This figure, based on estimates from USDA’s Economic Research Service of food loss at the retail and consumer levels, corresponded to approximately 133 billion pounds and $161 billion worth of food in 2010. Food is the single largest category of material placed in municipal landfills and represents wasted nourishment that could have helped feed families in need. Additionally, water, energy, and labor used to produce wasted food could have been employed for other purposes. Effectively reducing food waste will require cooperation among federal, state, tribal and local governments, faith-based institutions, environmental organizations, communities, consumers, and the entire supply chain.
https://www.fda.gov/food/consumers/food-loss-and-waste

[nowforever]

27. Absolutely

The two life essentials food and shelter are being exploited because they can. Thus in this capitalist economy they are capitalizing on the people's need to survive. Greed is a virtue in their world.

[Silent Type]

29. My local guy that sells excess eggs just raised his prices 50%. It ain't just big companies.

[Warpy]

31. "Greedflation" is a great name for it. A lot of things have shrunk in size

while the price has gone up and up. It's insane. I had sticker shock last night when I ordered the week's groceries, had to remind myself I'm not poor any longer. I don't know what people are doing now, especially people with kids.

I suppose the supermarkets that sell bulk beans and rice are having trouble keeping the bins filled. That was my diet when I was too sick to work, the RA flaring up. I always loved beans and rice. It's tough for people who don't.

I hope Biden is re elected and he starts listening to Robert Reich instead of all those corporate hacks. He could make a good start on shifting power away from plutocracy.

Until then, monopolies are going to do whatever they can get away with, and incestuous BODs are going to make sure they all do it in concert.

[Celerity]

60. It's called shrinkflation:

A lot of things have shrunk in size while the price has gone up and up.

It's happening here in Sweden too.

[Warpy]

61. If toiley paper gets much narrower

we'll be able to use it for party decorations and hair ribbons.

[krawhitham]

35. DUH, someone spent money for a study on this?

[MichMan]

37. I take it that you don't have any retirement or investment accounts?

Anyone who does is probably included as part of the "shareholder class"

[Faux pas]

38. I'm lucky

I only have to feed myself and my Kitty Boy. There's a grocery outlet in town and the local grocery store has 10% of Tuesdays for seniors. It wasn't this bad when my kids were growing up. I feel for the people with families to feed and the elderly on fixed incomes.

[lonely bird]

39. This. Is. Capitalism.

If a product costs $1.00 to make and then is sold for $2.00, that is 50% gross margin.

If the product cost is $1.50 then it must be sold at $3.00 to maintain the gross margin percentage. Maintaining that percentage automatically results in increased gross profit and, if the business is “well run”, increased profit, period.

Grocery stores are middlemen, what Smith called, iirc, merchants. They produce nothing. They are necessary aggregation points to most efficiently as well as profitably get food to consumers. They are careful to select points of location to maximize as much as possible customer flow. That is how you end up with so-called food deserts.

Large scale aggregators such as Mao-Mart and Target hammer suppliers on price. They will, in essence, dictate what they will pay. Any large scale purchaser will attempt to do this. The fewer the competitors the more downward force they can apply. In addition, large scale producers will hammer raw material suppliers. Small producers suffer because they cannot buy at the same cost as large competitors or they will be allocated smaller quantity so that large producers can maintain their raw material needs.

Large scale operations do not want competition. Their goal is to move large quantities at the lowest costs that they can. When costs rise, something that does not occur on its own, they will raise their prices. Should they wish to eliminate or diminish a competitor they can and will lower prices for a short time. They will also engage in consolidation by buying competitors and eliminating duplicate products. The industry that I work in, paints and coatings, sees this constantly. Sherwin-Willams, PPG, Akzo Nobel, RPM and ITW are all examples of consolidators.

[republianmushroom]

40. Just some more corporate greed.

[Backseat Driver]

41. What effect does shopping for groceries w/ "cash back" cards have against personal hits due to corporate greedflation

when one pays the card balance within the billing cycle..I have 3 different cards that one earns "cash back" differently.Is it better to redeem by sending back to balance or sending back to one's listed checking/savings bank account that pays those cards? Even the bank has some offers returned once a month though most of those promotions seem to be at places I've never heard about or use on a regular basis...hence seldom "activated."

Likewise, grocery shopping with on-line delivery of local farm products once weekly rather than big-name grocery stores with their own brands or the big name brands have on local personal greedflation prices and nutrition aimed at better health (organics and no GMOs). There are only two of us, and we have a small freezer to make use of "sales."in various food groups, weekly.There is also a "pass" program on shipping costs for orders over $35, a service fee of $3 for orders under that amount, and a voluntary driver tip, ostensibly for good service and gasoline assistance. The pass is priced at 12.99 and can be used against the weekly delivery. I have found that the food I order has more flavor with less use of chemicals - seems as though it's also more satisfying (less cravings between meals, lol) and less full-blown shopping at the Krogers, membership bulk groceries, Giant Eagle, Target, etc...I hate shopping at WalMart and our Fresh Thyme Market is inconvenienly located (farther away, so more gasoline).

What's working to keep your budget in better shape?

[usonian]

44. K&R

[mwooldri]

45. Time for a windfall tax perhaps?

Or at least threaten it? Might make companies think twice about raking in massive profits? Or work with the tax code so that corporations don't pull these kinds of stunts.

[Emile]

48. Actually that's a great idea.

[cstanleytech]

51. No shit!!!

[elocs]

53. Being retired & poor, I'm doing alright as far as food goes.

I get $100/month in EBT benefits from the state along with $174/month in healthy food benefits from my evil United Healthcare supplement plan. Then once a month I go to my local food pantry. But then it's just me to be fed and at age 72 I eat the carnivore dietary lifestyle not eating any fruit, vegetables, breads or grains and may be in the best shape of my life and my doctor is delighted about it. There are ways I know of that I could easily cut 20% of my weekly grocery bill. But as of now I pay nothing out of pocket for my food.

[oasis]

54. It's Greedflation. Wake up America.

[GB_RN]

57. So, Reich & Warren Were Right After All...

I posted about this sometime back in a thread about the Bank of England raising rates to “tame inflation”. I was questioning why, when the problem was this exact thing; corporate greed.

Someone, and I don’t remember who, told me I didn’t know what the fuck I was talking about, and that the talking points I got from Robert Reich and Elizabeth Warren were bullshit, and Powell & the Fed were right. I mean, this guy just blistered me with his post. Well, if he’s still around, I hope he reads the OP here.

[tclambert]

58. Isn't free market economics supposed to keep prices low?

Or is that a competitive market, requiring regulation to keep competition fair?

[Ligyron]

62. "Free Market"

[summer_in_TX]

63. It's happening across the border to our north too.

The largest grocery chain in Canada, Loblaws, has customers so infuriated that they are organizing a boycott.

[TheFarseer]

65. Just talked to a Republican about this (my dad)

He blames Biden’s war on fossil fuel raising the price of everything. I pointed out that we (USA) are pumping more oil than ever and given the war in Ukraine, he did a great job to keep gas prices roughly the same. Apparently that was not a good point.

He also blamed student loan forgiveness and spending in general. I said PPP loans were forgiven too and Trump’s massive tax cuts added to available money in circulation. Also studies show greedflation accounts for 60% of price increases. He started in on how college costs are out of control because liberals wanted student loans annd professor tenure is bad and how no one wants to join the army because of student loan forgiveness. So changing the subject means a win for me, right?

[Emile]

70. Right!

They have no argument, just misinformation.

[CousinIT]

71. The "Biden" is blocking oil production talking point is of course bullshit. This chart shows it up under Biden...

As for gas prices....


Of course, that doesn't stop the MAGA contingent from repeating their Putin-originated OAN/Fox/right-wing media derived talking points - regardless of what the facts are.

[ck4829]

66. K&R