Thursday Business

The goal of business is profit but when that profit comes before everything else we all pay a huge price.

Shell has broken its profit record for a second consecutive quarter and announced a $6bn share buyback scheme as the fallout from the war in Ukraine continues to generate bumper earnings for the world’s oil and gas majors.

The FEDs decision to raise interest rates is misguided at best. It won’t do anything to stop the shortages of raw materials due to tge war in Ukraine. Already we’re seeing shoppers switch to store brands to save costs and putting less items in their baskets. The housing market is already coming to a screeching halt and this will further apply the brakes. FED policy is set by people who are too far removed from ordinary shoppers.

Signed contracts to purchase existing homes dropped 20% in June compared with the same month a year ago, the National Association of Realtors said.

How bad is inflation? “I quit Starbucks. I had to. I just didn’t feel like that was justifiable. It’s like a small car payment” said a recent customer who estimated his monthly morning coffee was costing him $180. Note that the CEO of Starbucks salary remained the same, but bonuses gave the coffee chain leader a huge pay bump over 2020, and a 6.2% pay increase over his 2019 compensation.

So who is responsible for rising prices? Biden does deserve some blame for the last stimulus but blame also is shared by greedy corporations who raised prices which led to record profits and gas companies which refuse to use money to drill for more oil and would rather give shareholders more money.