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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   32956 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 1, 2023

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I'm not sure how the answer isn't soaring corporate profits.

If corporations could maximize their profits at their leisure with simple policy changes, it's awful convenient timing that they started right around when Covid hit, isn't it?

And let's ignore all the companies going under/declaring bankruptcy:

https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/us-corporate-bankruptcies-end-2020-at-10-year-high-amid-covid-19-pandemic-61973656

https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/us-corporate-bankruptcy-filings-hit-12-year-high-in-first-2-months-of-2023-74567693

Does that seem like maybe the causal arrow doesn't point the way you're implying?

The whole "corporate greed" explanation doesn't work because corporate greed has been a constant for decades, and massive inflation is more transitory and recent.

We need to examine what changed.

I would also note that there may be some weird timing effects, too. I've heard through the grapevine about companies who are doing major layoffs while also being about to post some record annual profit numbers. The profit numbers are heavily influenced by things that happened early in their fiscal year, but their projections for the next 6mo-1yr are bad (thus the layoffs).

Well that and that many clearly, CLEARLY overhired during a stimulus period.

So the layoffs were inevitable as they adjusted to reasonable levels, but their projections for the next year are also going to factor in to how sharp the layoffs are.

In my view, they hired indiscriminately in hopes of capturing and identifying some valuable employees that they would attempt to keep in the long term when revenues were down.

Are any of those corporations the companies that actually matter, though? Certainly not any Fortune 500 biz, I bet.

You tell me.

https://archive.is/otz2K

It sure seems like a particular kind of company is seeing record profits while many others (e.g., airlines) are struggling mightily.

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