Aug 20, 2024
Execs Throw MAJOR Tantrum Over Harris Policy
Vice President Kamala Harris is facing backlash from CEO's' over her promise to ban price-gouging.
- 15 minutes
Is it okay to to to sort of so the
populist discontent do you think Doug.
I mean, I guess we shouldn't be surprised,
but it's just so easy
not to connect the dots between all
the prosperity that a country enjoys
[00:00:17]
based on the private sector.
And it's just really it's really easy to
bash corporations is greedy profit mongers
and that need, you know,
price controls and, you know, should be
precluded from buying back stock and need
[00:00:32]
to pay their fair share when no one.
If you were to really pin them down,
no one wants the government
to be the main provider of jobs.
Is it just trying to win elections?
You know, saying that it is wrong
to accuse corporations of being
[00:00:52]
profit mongers is kind of hilarious.
When you live in a country
where corporations have the fiduciary
responsibility to provide a return
on investment to their shareholders.
But anyway, of course,
that was CNBC anchor Joe Kernan, who is
not a fan of a vague statement that Kamala
Harris made in regard to price gouging.
[00:01:10]
And so that has led to this ongoing
domino effect in the media,
where they've just been attacking her
relentlessly over something that she's
not going to do, and they're accusing her
of wanting to do price fixing.
There's no evidence of that.
But let's get into the details.
[00:01:27]
So, so far, Harris is again,
incredibly vague plan to ban price gouging
as it pertains to grocery stores and food
prices has in fact ruffled some feathers.
So to discuss the topic,
CNBC brought on the former Kellogg CEO.
[00:01:44]
His name is Carlos Gutierrez.
His feelings on the matter,
probably won't surprise you.
I thought we would have learned by now
that price controls do not work.
It is an abstract concept
and very hard to enforce.
And I think if anything, it perhaps it
will create some intimidation that we
[00:02:03]
shouldn't be raising raising prices or.
But it's not it's not sound policy.
And I'm just very surprised.
It seems like they have momentum. Harris.
Well, they have momentum.
They've got,
they've got polls on their side.
[00:02:21]
They don't need this.
Some people are left wing
and they believe it.
And they believe in, you know, they
believe that billionaires and millionaires
and CEOs are the enemies of this economy.
We want to compete against the world.
We want to compete and beat China.
[00:02:40]
Yet we are holding back our companies,
not just with this.
You know, let's just say they do put
on price controls, try to get a merger
across in the FTC, across the FTC.
It will take months and months and months.
[00:02:57]
In the meantime, your competitors
are getting stronger Business is not
the enemy, but it's an easy target.
Mergers lead to an increase in prices.
Lack of competition in the market.
[00:03:17]
And so I am against price controls,
as we've talked about on this show.
We're very much left wing
when it comes to economic policies.
Price controls typically lead to even more
inflation, shortages, things like that.
That's certainly what happened
back in the 1970s.
[00:03:34]
But what I'm certainly in favor of
is ensuring that we have Federal Trade
Commission that is hyper focused on
ensuring that there's competition in the
market to ensure there is lower prices.
And, you know, without the competition.
[00:03:50]
I mean, he was just he was just
complaining about how long it takes
for mergers to take place in America.
Hey, don't scroll away,
come back, come back.
Because before the video continues, we
just want to urge you to lend your support
to tight U power our honestreporting.
[00:04:05]
You do it at Titcomb team
and we love you for it.
And that's because he's in the middle
of a $30 billion merger.
Kellogg and Mars Company,
I believe, are considering merging.
And that would,
mainly really limit the supply.
[00:04:23]
Not the supply,
but the the number of companies
within the snacks and candy industry.
ET cetera.
Of course, Kellogg's
and more things as well.
But that's that's
what they're worried about.
And they want to make sure
that they want that they guard
[00:04:39]
against monopolies and oligopolies.
And if you're a capitalist monopoly,
monopoly power is one
of the first things that you read about
and that you understand
is an enemy of the free markets.
Monopolies and oligopolies, which is
a number of small, limited companies,
[00:04:56]
small number of companies,
which is exactly what we have in America.
Dominating almost every industry greatly
hurts competition prices and free markets
so that these executives get massive
payouts when they do these mergers.
So oftentimes
they'll be golden parachutes.
[00:05:12]
They'll be extra incentive incentives
to merge, they'll get stock options
from both companies, etc..
So they have all the incentive
in the world to do these mergers.
But it hurts consumers.
And that's why the government
is supposed to look out for you
like they're a cop on the on Main Street.
They also needs
to be a cop on Wall Street.
[00:05:28]
Now, a couple of interesting things
he said there, though.
He said, number one,
this looks like an intimidation.
Well, it partly is.
And that's what the government
is supposed to do.
They're supposed to say,
hey, we're going to put a check on you.
So if you think you're going to abuse
this system and abuse the the voters
[00:05:44]
and the average American, well,
you're not going to get away with it.
So if you do price gouging in the middle
of a natural disaster, you charge $200
for a bottle of water because there was
a hurricane hit and your kids need water.
Well, we're going to come
after you for that.
That's because that's the government
protecting you in a time of need.
So he then said,
oh, well, this is really vague.
[00:06:01]
Now wait a minute.
If you thought it's price controls,
then it's not vague at all.
Price controls are very clear.
Hey, I'm going to set the price
of bananas at $0.20 a pound.
Super clear.
No, price gouging is big.
So you don't think it's price controls?
You think it is a and actually
an effort to limit price gouging.
[00:06:20]
That's why you called it big.
So look, that brother is speaking
from his perspective as a CEO of a massive
multi-billion dollar company.
And in their world, they really believe
the mythology that they put out there
in the propaganda that they do.
And if you notice, he said, well, they had
all this momentum, but, you know, they in
[00:06:39]
the polling, this shows that it's popular
and they've added to their momentum.
But what he really meant was the business
community thought we could trust him.
And you had momentum with the donors,
but now you're cutting into your momentum.
So now we can't trust
that you're corrupt enough.
[00:06:55]
Awesome. You can't do a better ad, right?
And just to be clear, you know,
former Kellogg CEO, but has
the mentality of a CEO who's, by the way,
Tasked with maximizing profits.
So. Right that that is the job
that they are focused on.
[00:07:14]
And so it makes sense that they're going
to push back against any type
of government regulation that would go
after any type of predatory behavior.
Right.
And in the case of price gouging,
that has been a problem.
And look, they have been denying over
and over again on cable news shows that,
[00:07:31]
no, no, no, there was no price gouging.
None of that happened.
But if you want to know the truth,
the best way to get it is to listen
in on the calls that these executives have
with their shareholders, which is public.
You can actually join those calls
and listen in to what they're saying,
[00:07:46]
and they cannot lie to the shareholders.
Otherwise they could be liable
for fraud prosecution.
So with that in mind, let's
actually read some of the transcripts
from some of these calls.
Okay.
Let's start with the CEO
of Iron Mountain Inc., who told Wall
[00:08:04]
Street analysts at a September 20th,
2022 investor event that the high levels
of inflation of the past several years
had helped the company
increase its margins, meaning increase
their profits and that for and that.
[00:08:21]
For that reason,
he had long been doing my inflation dance.
Praying for inflation. Yeah.
Praying for inflation. Okay.
There's more.
Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen said on an
earnings call with analysts back in 2021.
[00:08:38]
Our business operates the best
when inflation is about 3% to 4%.
A little bit of inflation is
always good for in our business.
Yeah, okay.
Because they can piggyback off of that
inflation messaging that we see in the
media and justify increasing their prices
even though they really don't need to.
[00:08:59]
Yeah.
So I want to get to the politics of this
because it's just absolutely brilliant.
But but first I want to emphasize
one thing that Anna said.
So when that CEO says
that they're praying for inflation.
Remember, the current CEOs are saying,
oh no, no, we're really worried about
[00:09:14]
inflation because it drives up our prices.
We're afraid of inflation.
So when a CEO says, no, no, no,
we're secretly praying for inflation,
what he's saying is I'm going
to use that as an opportunity
to drive up my profits even more.
So that's where he gives away the game.
They're not afraid of that.
[00:09:33]
You know, it depends on the industry.
It depends on the company.
But for a lot of these consumer goods,
especially because of the extra money that
people had because of the Covid relief,
they thought, oh, they're going
to be less likely to move to a competitor
or to a non-brand,
consumer goods like sugar or etc.
[00:09:52]
Or even a detergent.
It's all of those things
that you find in a grocery store.
So we got them where we want them.
And inflation allows us to charge
past inflation to make a bigger problem.
So now the politics of it
so this was an incredible,
[00:10:10]
Is incredible populist jiu jitsu maneuver,
and more effective than almost anything
that I could remember
in covering presidential politics because
Donald Trump was was perceived wrongly but
perceived as the more populist candidate.
[00:10:25]
So he would speak like an average guy
in that he didn't use prompters.
He didn't know
what the hell he was talking about.
Right.
Like, not that an average guy doesn't,
but he didn't look studied
like a normal politician does.
And that gave him the feeling
of authenticity without the actual
[00:10:41]
authenticity or the actual populism.
Meanwhile, he's saying in words like,
oh, I'm going to give corporations
everything an even bigger tax cut, etc.
But he had that momentum.
Now it's switched completely.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz
look more, populist.
The more they are called communist,
the more they look populist.
[00:10:57]
Because now Trump, the Republicans
and all of cable news is dug into.
No, Kamala Harris
is hurting big corporations.
She's trying to you know, you know, please
the average person in America unfairly
and taking it out on big business.
[00:11:17]
You can't ask for better ads than that.
This is beautiful.
This is exactly what you should do.
Now, nobody's talking about
how Trump's a populist.
He never was anyway.
But that veneer is gone
when they start defending big business.
Exactly.
And so I want to give you more examples,
[00:11:33]
because it wasn't just 1 or 2
corporate executives who openly bragged
about how how they were taking advantage
of the inflation narrative in order to
jack up their prices for no reason at all,
other than to increase their
margins and their profits.
AutoZone, which sells car parts
and accessories, saw earnings jump 13%.
[00:11:52]
CEO Jamere Jackson called inflation
a little bit of our friend in terms
of what we see in terms of retail pricing.
There's more.
Coca Cola Coca Cola Co's CEO James Quincey
said in February of 2023
[00:12:09]
the company had earned the right to
push price hikes on the consumers
because it's classic Coke and Fanta sodas
led the beverage category.
And so look, because of Covid,
it is undeniable that there were
[00:12:24]
supply chain disruptions.
So there were areas in our economy,
sectors of the economy that certainly
saw prices jump because there
was limited supply, increased demand.
However, companies and sectors
of the economy that were not impacted
[00:12:41]
by these supply chain issues decided
to take advantage of that and argue that
they had to raise their prices as well.
And look, I do think that there's value,
even though I don't think Kamala Harris
is going to do a damn thing
about price gouging.
And to be fair, you know,
inflation has slowed down a little bit
[00:12:59]
when it comes to grocery prices.
Prices are still coming up, but the
inflation has slowed down considerably.
I do think that the threat
of doing something has an impact.
We certainly see that with Lina Khan
as the head of the FTC.
You know, when the threat of FTC lawsuits
could potentially stop a merger
[00:13:18]
from happening.
Sometimes those proposed mergers
are never even proposed.
Yeah.
So that's why when he said, it seems
like they're trying to intimidate us.
Think about the message
that sends to the average voter.
They're saying Kamala Harris would bully
big business interests to fight for you.
[00:13:37]
Oh, my God, that's beautiful.
All right, so please keep saying that
all over television.
I know that the big business community
is like verklempt over it.
And they're like, oh my God, we won't
give you as much as we were going to.
Okay, fine.
But at this point, I don't think that
that makes much of a difference at all.
[00:13:54]
What makes a difference
is appealing to these voters.
And this is why you attack on your
moral high ground, because it invites
the other side to accidentally help you
by continuing this discussion,
which frames you as the fighter
for the average American.
[00:14:10]
Exactly.
Now I have to give credit to one CEO.
And I'm sure you'll be
very proud of this, Jake.
He's a fellow Turk.
- Oh, yes.
- So he's the Chobani founder and CEO.
Hamdi Ulukaya.
[00:14:26]
- Yeah.
- Hamdi Ulukaya.
Obviously.
And here's what he's had to say about the
price gouging that has been taking place.
He says that this is irresponsible.
People who depend on food
are paying the price.
Yeah, well, look, that makes two Turks
that didn't raise their price.
[00:14:42]
During inflation, we also didn't raise the
price of membership here on Young Turks.
Hit the join button below.
Still the same low price, but seriously.
I look,
I think Hamdi is a super smart guy.
I love that he called it Greek yogurt
when he's Turkish.
He just did it for marketing.
[00:14:58]
It worked and it worked
and it was brilliant.
And nothing wrong with that.
That's another long story.
But here he is sticking up
for the average consumer, saying, no,
we're not going to raise prices
and you don't have to raise prices.
It's all about profit margin guys.
If you have a tiny margin digital media
okay.
[00:15:15]
Well then that.
You're in trouble and you need
as much margin as you can possibly get
to survive in the tough times, right?
But a lot of these companies
have giant margins, so it's just a matter
of how much in profits they're making,
how many billions in profits
that they're making, etc..
[00:15:30]
Now, grocery stores
are not the best example of that.
Grocery stores do have kind of
low margins, but that's why all of this is
a little bit of more optics than reality,
because she's not going to go
after grocery stores,
and I doubt she'll ever even do this.
I think that all they're doing
is falling right into her trap
[00:15:48]
of painting her as the populist person
fighting for the average guy.
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