Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

AndroChromie t1_iy5gwju wrote

It has become inflation histeria. It's almost as if companies that haven't raised the prices yet are feeling like they have to move with the band wagon of increases or face the wrath of the shareholders, even if some of them secretly only have minor or no extra costs.

I have had multiple increases and some of my friends in different countries tell the same story. The companies cannot really explain it, but they're trying to justify it through bs arguments. A few from my friends:

Electricity bill: way up because it was more expensive some months ago (but hey let's forget it has bottomed again, let's follow the most expensive imagined price on the global market to keep it up).

Internet: increased general costs (unspecified, but hey band wagon).

Mobile internet: We're paying more for some bs maintenance so we felt like raising it. The time is right.

Water: we're forced to increase by 20 percent. Not even an explanation, simply an increase.

Heating: of course it's up, even if it doesn't use oil, gas or electricity in any substantial amounts or is based on completely renewable energy.

Insurance: our costs are greater and we have to raise the price.

Goods & Services:

"People are buying too much from us, so we have to raise the price, not enough to go around" Supply/Demand you know.

"People are not buying enough from us, so we have to raise the price, to cover our costs" Supply/Demand you know.

Food: the price of food globally is up, so we are going to increase our prices domestically, because we prefer to follow the global market, even if the costs for transport in a hypothetical scenario where we would export it, would be very high. "You pay 50% more because the price 10000 miles away are 50% higher and we could export it to them, you know."

Renting: "Of course it is more costly now to rent out an apartment to you, even if you pay utility bills directly to the companies".

Everyone else: "our workers might want higher wages down the road, let's start increasing prices on our products to get ahead of this and fill the war chest".

Politicians: "Prepare for more Inflation!" (ok now that you said it like it's two minutes to tsunami, it definitely WILL come true).

The mass histeria will come true, because we're panicking. We're panicking due to mass histeria. Mass histeria started as a panic reaction.

33

AstralElement t1_iy5ztyc wrote

It’s its own sickness. Inflation is being caused by them rising prices in this vicious cycle.

10

Subject_Amount_1246 t1_iy5p9h7 wrote

The real reason for longrun high inflation is simple. Too much money printing over the last decade and a half has flooded the money supply.

Most companies will keep lower prices to steal marketshare from competitors if they can, and you cant just assume everyone is colluding/price fixing. However companies that have monopolistic levels of marketshare should be heavily scrutinized (or broken up)

3

AndroChromie t1_iy74nu0 wrote

It's not any price fixing or colluding, it is simply an underlying observation by other companies that make them edgy and wanting to increase their prices "just in case and it's an opportunity". The market mechanisms of attracting customers from the competition has been diminished, because the opportunity of the mass histeria band wagon has simply become a framework to operate in. Why steal clients from the competition if we can get them to pay 50% more just because "it's those times and no one will complain". Not all price settings need a formal price fixing agreement, it can simply be an "understood market tendency".

"Everyone is raising their prices and our market analytics tell us we can do the same without losing any customers, because consumers don't really have any other choices and if they do, it will be just as costly due to.... Mass histeria".

1

deez_treez t1_iy6tqq2 wrote

>Insurance

Insurance company profits are directly affected by interest rate hikes as it decreases bond values.

1