Retailers Exploiting 'Trade War' While Your Wages Shrink
Newsweek's report highlights the obvious: retailers exploit any excuse to inflate prices. They're using the 'trade war' as cover, just as they blamed 'supply chain issues' during the pandemic, and 'inflation' when corporate profits were at record highs. In Q3 2023, while worker wages barely budged, S&P 500 companies reported an average 18.2% profit margin, according to FactSet. This isn't an
'exploitation' of a trade war; it's business as usual. The 'war' is just a convenient, official-sounding scapegoat. So, the next time your grocery bill looks like a down payment on a small car, remember: it's not always distant geopolitical conflicts. Often, it's just plain old corporate price-gouging, framed by compliant media as an unfortunate, external circumstance. How many 'wars' do we need
to excuse unchecked profiteering?