The last time this happened, voters didn’t credit Bill Clinton. That may be a bad omen, or a good one.

If the stock market chose presidents, Joe Biden would be a shoo-in for reelection in 2024. The market rallied this month amid growing optimism about the economy, with the S&P 500 zooming 1.9 percent Tuesday on news that the consumer price index rose only 3.2 percent in October (compared to 3.7 percent in September). Stocks rallied again Wednesday on news that the producer price index fell 0.5 percent. Commentators are no longer debating whether the economy will experience a “soft landing” (i.e., a reduction in inflation without recession). The only question now is when it will arrive. The S&P 500 seems to have decided it’s already here.

But the stock market doesn’t choose presidents. Voters do, and polls continue to show they think the economy is in terrible shape. A Financial Times–Michigan Ross Nationwide Survey conducted November 2–7 is absolutely brutal on this point.

  • jeffw@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I think one caveat here (and I’m not disagreeing with you, just adding a bit of clarification) is that the grocery stores aren’t the ones engaging in this. Generally, they have pretty tight profit margins. The massive growth of Aldi and other discount grocers in the USA over the past 10-20 years has made the profit margins remain tight. It’s the upstream producers where you see more of the greed.

    Most people reading this probably haven’t even heard of a company like Cargill, even though they control a massive chunk of your meat.

    Edit: maybe I should have said they produce most of your meat (or the plurality, not sure the exact numbers. They’re the biggest in North American beef, maybe other meats too)

    • toasteecup@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I work in the corporate office for a grocery, you’re not wrong at all chief.

      This entire year one of our biggest corporate goals has been how to either drive down prices for our customers or how to increase value for them so that they’ll feel their dollar went further.

      • Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        welllll they done gone and shit the bed on that one! Lol prices are higher than ever and I feel like my dollar is worth about as much as a turd these days and it doesn’t seem like it’s getting any better.

          • Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yes I did. And I understand that it’s not really on the grocery stores that the prices are increasing. But it’s still funny when the goal of a company is literally to “drive down prices for our customers or how to increase value for them so that they’ll feel their dollar went further” aaaaamd nothing but the exact opposite is happening. So yes, even tho it may not really be their fault, they’re still dropping the ball on that goal lol c’mon.

              • Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                I get that but let’s look at this rationally. The grocery stores know their business (or at least I hope they do). So they either did one of two things.

                1. They made a goal that they knowingly could do nothing about and prices went up and the value of the dollar went thru the floor.

                Or

                1. They made a goal that they believed they could do something about and prices went up and the value of the dollar in their store went thru the floor.

                In either case I would say they absolutely dropped the ball.

                • toasteecup@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  I think that’s a bit of a overreach.

                  It would help if I self identified my employer but I’m not comfortable doing that. Having said that, said employer has added a plethora of services and features for our customers at no additional charge for them to make it easier for them to do their shopping however they would like.

                  Those services were developed under the goal that I had stated and all of them have seen utilization and compliments from the customers, data doesn’t lie and the data shows them being a success.

                  • SmoothIsFast@citizensgaming.com
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                    1 year ago

                    data doesn’t lie and the data shows them being a success.

                    No but it can be interpreted in the completely wrong way when you forget about the supplementary data driving the numbers you look at, as evidenced by all the treads in this post calling out that even though the stock market numbers look good that’s not really painting the whole picture of our economy. A boost in using services like online shopping delivery and what not could also signify people have significantly less time, working multiple jobs maybe to make ends meet and this is the only way to get groceries. That doesn’t mean they feel the service is great just nessacity is driving its adoption. Couple that knowledge with a low unemployment rate and those data trends can start to paint a different picture than you initially thought.

    • WalrusDragonOnABike@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Most people reading this probably haven’t even heard of a company like Cargill, even though they control a massive chunk of your meat.

      Kinda curious what percert do. Fediverse isn’t exactly a random sample. I’d imagine it was be a small minority of the general population who know that. Honestly mostly only became aware of Cargill because of how much of the Venezuela food market they used to control (and the possible abuse of that position).

      • jeffw@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Revenue is not profit. You’re quoting revenue to make the situation look more extreme than it is. That number is not profit. You’re also cherrypicking a top performer instead of looking at industry trends. Publix, in my experience (only visit the south, don’t live there), is a higher end store.

        Kroger lost money this quarter. Profit was negative.

        It’s also not so straightforward for a number of reasons. Grocery consolidation is way up, so operating revenues go up because there are more stores in each brand’s portfolio. YOY growth is misleading, you should look at profit per store to get a better grasp on a trend. You’re also looking at an industry heavily impacted by the pandemic (certain chains like Walmart and Amazon saw more grocery growth during the pandemic for obvious reasons)