News of the Day III

[Bolthed]

I dunno. I think a lot of sectors have taken the opportunity to blame higher prices on the pandemic when in reality, they’re just trying to make up for their own losses in 2020. Is that greed or market manipulation or opportunistic? I don’t know. I don’t claim to understand market ecosystems on that level of interrelatedness.

One good example that comes to mind is new cars. The “microprocessor shortage” they say caused their short supply smells like a steaming pile of horseshit.

[Puckhead]

I've been out of the car biz for 5 years now, since retreading..But I talk to dealership guys in Fl occasionally, normally about hockey but also about their jobs and $$. They complain about inventory, even though their per car is sticker+ in almost all cases. They say they'd trade the per car for more units..Scarcity of inventory has also had a big impact on the sales forces. Experienced sales guys have left the business because they can't sell as many cars as they were accustomed to, with the resulting decrease in $$ earned. I'd think all of this is true for mainstream dealerships. So, intentionally restricting inventory is not something that makes dealers, or their employees, happy--quite the contrary.

[RSchmitz]

I dunno. I think a lot of sectors have taken the opportunity to blame higher prices on the pandemic when in reality, they’re just trying to make up for their own losses in 2020. Is that greed or market manipulation or opportunistic? I don’t know. I don’t claim to understand market ecosystems on that level of interrelatedness.

One good example that comes to mind is new cars. The “microprocessor shortage” they say caused their short supply smells like a steaming pile of horseshit.

I think you're 100% correct with regards to commodities like oil, but the genesis of the semi-conductor shortage which is causing the massive bottleneck on virtually everything tech related is well documented. A lot of companies pulled the rug from underneath the foundries responsible for making them with mass cancellations and then wanted to turn the pump to full blast once restrictions lifted. Semi-conductors are not something you can easily make, requiring specialty equipment produced by more specialty equipment. A company named ASML has a moat around that space. This was exacerbated by a fire in asia destroying one of the largest semi-conductor plants earlier this year.

[BurnTHalO]

I dunno. I think a lot of sectors have taken the opportunity to blame higher prices on the pandemic when in reality, they’re just trying to make up for their own losses in 2020. Is that greed or market manipulation or opportunistic? I don’t know. I don’t claim to understand market ecosystems on that level of interrelatedness.

I can confirm the shortage is 100% is true. I actually know a guy who is a vp in a microchip company. When the pandemic hit and nobody was driving, car companies stopped ordering. They made the decision to switch their processing to electronics like computers to keep running. The process to switch is not a quick one, and they did not have the ability to simply switch back overnight when companies suddenly needed inventory.

That said, companies are partly responsible for the inflation. They dont price things out to make $X on everything sold. If their cost raises 3%, they raise the cost of their product by 10%.

[Bolthed]

Not saying it was collusion or conspiracy, but couldn’t carmakers have decided not to order chips, knowing it would tighten demand the following year, which translates into more $$?

In normal years the industry has incentives and sales and specials to help move cars off the lot. Good luck finding anything in 2021 … the same car that they used to regularly discount by $3-4,000 is now full price everywhere because of the short supply.

I had the misfortune of some northern asshole rear-end and total my car, and when I had to go shopping I even saw a couple of dealerships make offers with something they called a “market adjustment fee.” Now, in normal years that wouldn’t exist or it was a discount/rebate instead. Nope, in 2021, that fee was $5-800 worth of “fuck you, we don’t need your business.”

Car dealers are inherently evil, but anyone with half a brain knows the basic equations of supply and demand. They lost a ton of money in 2020, they reduced supply (intentionally? unintentionally? out of stupidity?) and now we have cascading inflation, because everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE in every industry and every line of work, has their hand out for more money because of supply, labor and inflation issues. I know it’s just business to pass along the cost to customers. But you can’t tell me none of what’s happening is simple greed.

[jdhebner]

What’s happening with cars parallels weirdly with beanie babies, hipana toothpaste, and vitalis, timeshares Artificial shortages. There will be a glut of cars in 2023 and prices will plummet. Too bad there’s no cilantro shortage

[Hoek]

They reduced supply because a ton of people lost their jobs and weren't driving anywhere due to the pandemic, seems pretty obvious. Were they supposed to just keep building cars that wouldn't sell in order to prevent inflation later? Uncertainty is a bitch.

The advent of the "just in time" manufacturing model in previous years helped exacerbate things, as everyone now only orders parts just as they need them, instead of stockpiling in advance, which at least would've smoothed out starting everything up again. Instead everyone is trying to "just in time" order the same things at the same time.

[RSchmitz]

Not saying it was collusion or conspiracy, but couldn’t carmakers have decided not to order chips, knowing it would tighten demand the following year, which translates into more $$?

In normal years the industry has incentives and sales and specials to help move cars off the lot. Good luck finding anything in 2021 … the same car that they used to regularly discount by $3-4,000 is now full price everywhere because of the short supply.

I had the misfortune of some northern asshole rear-end and total my car, and when I had to go shopping I even saw a couple of dealerships make offers with something they called a “market adjustment fee.” Now, in normal years that wouldn’t exist or it was a discount/rebate instead. Nope, in 2021, that fee was $5-800 worth of “fuck you, we don’t need your business.”

Car dealers are inherently evil, but anyone with half a brain knows the basic equations of supply and demand. They lost a ton of money in 2020, they reduced supply (intentionally? unintentionally? out of stupidity?) and now we have cascading inflation, because everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE in every industry and every line of work, has their hand out for more money because of supply, labor and inflation issues. I know it’s just business to pass along the cost to customers. But you can’t tell me none of what’s happening is simple greed.

A relatively unknown, dirty little secret of big auto is that they are up to their necks in debt. They are also way, way, way behind the eight ball in innovation, they are going to have to take on even more debt to make the switch to EV and most of them will go belly up.

[jdhebner]

Rip Betty White…

[jdhebner]

Jesus. Bob Saget too….

[nutznboltz]

Also Dwayne Hickman, for those of us old enough to remember the Dobie Gillis show.

[nutznboltz]

RIP Meat Loaf, too soon at age 74.

[jdhebner]

RIP Meat Loaf, too soon at age 74.

Meh. Reports coming out he was a pro diseaser. Hope I’m wrong but…. If I’m right. Fuck you meat loaf

[Donnie D]

https://nypost.com/2022/01/21/meat-loaf-was-ill-with-covid-days-before-his-death-report/

[jdhebner]

https://nypost.com/2022/01/21/meat-l...-death-report/

Fuck.