18 May—By clicking on this link you can review my impressive credentials in economics. So I’m obviously well qualified to report my observations. I’m also well qualified to interpret and comment on those observations, but since the observations speak for themselves, that won’t be necessary.

If you haven’t noticed or been unrelentingly reminded by all the media, virtually everything is more expensive these days. Like building products and groceries. The chains blame empty racks and shelves and higher prices on supply-chain issues. That can mean anything. When merchandise does become available again, it’s usually considerably more expensive than it had been. But thank the gods it’s available.

Lack of availability (supply) creates and increases demand (and sometimes causes panic). Price point (what people are willing to pay) is essentially a function of demand relative to supply. Control the supply, control the price. It helps, too, if you can control or even create the demand. That’s where advertising may come in. And for necessities and monopolies there is no price point.

Supply-chain issues can start with raw materials and work their way through manufacturing, transportation, and delivery stages—all the middlemen. The end of the line is the brick-and-mortar or virtual retail location, where all the costs, mark-ups, margins, and taxes are built in the price the ultimate consumer pays—usually through the nose. Whoops, that’s a comment.

And if Joe Biden and his pals for one second think that raising taxes on corporations will so much as bother the greedy corporations, they’re even stupider than we’ve thought. It’s axiomatic that corporations don’t pay tax, they simply collect it. Whoops, that’s an interpretation along with another comment.

While I’m in comment mode, one of my original mottoes is: Who takes my money is a thief, even if he gives me something in return. No copyright, feel free to use it.

Virtually all the big corporate players—including Amazon, Home Depot, Lowes, Pfizer, Abbott (baby formula monopoly), CVS, Exxon, Alphabet (Google), Procter & Gamble, Koninklijke Ahold (Stop & Shop), Walmart, Target—are doing fantastically these days. Public sector employees (especially in Connecticut) are also doing fantastically. Welfare recipients are doing nicely. Private-sector employees, not so great. Except at senior management level, of course. Taxpayers, really screwed, in spite of worthless election-year “breaks” from pols like Ned Lamont. (Sorry, there I go again.)

The COVID panic was a godsend for businesses. Not only were there the miraculous and often—perhaps usually—abused federal PPP dollars from heaven, but it was a wonderful excuse for reducing services while increasing prices. Supply and demand, you know. Whoops, another comment.

But isn’t that capitalism at work? Isn’t that what capitalism is all about? Profit and greed. You’ve got to love it. Unlike other animals, human beings are inherently greedy. That’s precisely why socialism can never work . . .