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https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/...rices.html

Democratic voters aren't really dumb enough to believe this, right?

Well that's just ridiculous.

It's possible that the meat conglomerates are colluding to raise prices, engaging in anti-competitive business practices, but when that's the case, we find evidence, and issue indictments. Where is her evidence?

This seems easy enough to prove. Just see if meat prices are going up in supermarkets, but not in small meat markets. I know when we had shortages last year, it was really easy to get meat at Tillman's.

(12-15-2021, 08:33 PM)mikesez Wrote: [ -> ]It's possible that the meat conglomerates are colluding to raise prices, engaging in anti-competitive business practices, but when that's the case, we find evidence, and issue indictments. Where is her evidence?

Every part of the logistical supply chain to get meat from the animal to the store shelves has gone up. Fuel, raw materials, trucker wages, etc. We call this inflation.

(12-15-2021, 08:52 PM)StroudCrowd1 Wrote: [ -> ]

(12-15-2021, 08:33 PM)mikesez Wrote: [ -> ]It's possible that the meat conglomerates are colluding to raise prices, engaging in anti-competitive business practices, but when that's the case, we find evidence, and issue indictments. Where is her evidence?

Every part of the logistical supply chain to get meat from the animal to the store shelves has gone up. Fuel, raw materials, trucker wages, etc. We call this inflation.

That is likely true, but the sure sign of collusion is when (1) prices go up, (2) market shares all stay the same or nearly the same, and (3) profit margins are up.
(1) happened. If it's just input costs going up, those usually don't all go up at the same time for all players, so you should see variations in market share and some players reduce profit margin as the prices go up. If you don't see that, it's probably collusion, aka greed.
Again, very simple for the FTC to report on these things, it's not the agriculture department's job.  If the only government employees looking into it are Jen Psaki and Tom vilsack, then the Biden administration are incompetent charlatans. Time will tell if they actually get the right people on the job or not.

(12-15-2021, 08:50 PM)Lucky2Last Wrote: [ -> ]This seems easy enough to prove. Just see if meat prices are going up in supermarkets, but not in small meat markets. I know when we had shortages last year, it was really easy to get meat at Tillman's.

Our local cattle farmers who sell primarily at farmer's markets couldn't keep up with demand last year. When all that was left on the shelves was Beyond Beef people were hitting up the cattle farmers. It was a rough year. 

Which reminds me tomorrow is farmer's market day. Gotta get some flat iron steak.

In a free market system, they are supposed to charge as much as they can.  That gives them the incentive and the resources to produce more. 

That's why statements about "greedy businesses" are idiotic.  "Greedy business" is redundant.  Or course they are greedy.  They're supposed to be greedy.  That's how the system works.  That's why we have automobiles, and airplanes, and computers, and cell phones.  That's why we have jobs.  That's why we have food on our table.

Yeah, I'm all about that until our industries get captured. Our system is corrupted. I don't know if that's true about the meat market. I don't really know enough about it to say one way or the other, but, if it's like many of our other institutions, it's probably broken.

(12-16-2021, 07:20 AM)The Real Marty Wrote: [ -> ]In a free market system, they are supposed to charge as much as they can.  That gives them the incentive and the resources to produce more. 

That's why statements about "greedy businesses" are idiotic.  "Greedy business" is redundant.  Or course they are greedy.  They're supposed to be greedy.  That's how the system works.  That's why we have automobiles, and airplanes, and computers, and cell phones.  That's why we have jobs.  That's why we have food on our table.

You're not wrong, but this explanation is incomplete.  They are supposed to charge as much as they can, yes, but what they can charge is supposed to be moderated by free and fair competition. Collusion destroys competition and is probably more common today than you think.

(12-15-2021, 08:33 PM)mikesez Wrote: [ -> ]It's possible that the meat conglomerates are colluding to raise prices, engaging in anti-competitive business practices, but when that's the case, we find evidence, and issue indictments. Where is her evidence?

There is no evidence other than the actual cost of being a meat producer.  Higher costs on everything from feed to fuel to packaging to labor, etc. leads to higher prices.  The higher cost is passed onto the consumer rather than decrease the slim profit margin.