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Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Revisiting corporate greed’s effect on the supply chain (with Rakeen Mabud)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.81.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 December 2022

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Judging by the amount of downloads for this episode, we’d say it was our listeners’ favorite from the past year. “Did Corporate Greed Break the Supply Chain?” with Rakeen Mabud from the Groundwork Collaborative exposes how the supply chain was actually designed: not for reliably getting goods to people, but for maximizing profit. Unfortunately, that’s something many Americans came to realize in 2022 as prices skyrocketed and store shelves were left empty. This episode originally aired on March 22, 2022. Rakeen Mabud is the Chief Economist and Managing Director of Policy and Research at the Groundwork Collaborative. Twitter: @rakeen_mabud How We Broke the Supply Chain https://prospect.org/economy/how-we-broke-the-supply-chain-intro/ Corporations Raise Prices as Consumers Spend ‘With a Vengeance’ https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/27/business/economy/price-increases-inflation.html Opinion: Larry Summers Shares the Blame for Inflation https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/opinion/larry-summers-inflation.html Inflation causing financial strain for nearly half of U.S. households, poll finds https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/12/02/inflation-gallup-financial-hardship/ Stock Buybacks Beat Capital Spending for Many Big Companies https://www.wsj.com/articles/stock-buybacks-beat-capital-spending-for-many-big-companies-11631611802 The stock market is punishing Walmart and Target for keeping costs low while the rest of the corporate sector prioritizes profits and makes inflation worse https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-target-keep-prices-low-corporations-prioritize-profits-inflation-worse-2021-11 Website: https://pitchforkeconomics.com/ Twitter: @PitchforkEcon Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, pitchfork economics listeners, Goldie here.

0:03.4

As you may know, orthodox economics tells us that we're always paid exactly what we're worth.

0:10.7

And given the ungodly fortune he's raked in, Nick must have worked extremely hard over the past year.

0:17.6

So he's taking a well-earned holiday break. To fill the gap over the coming weeks,

0:23.5

we're going to re-air some of our favorite episodes of the year.

0:27.5

And let me tell you, it was hard to pick.

0:29.7

For example, we talked about billionaires devouring the world with Peter Goodman.

0:34.7

We explored how thinking like economists holds us back with Beth Berman.

0:39.2

And we asked the question, why won't Trickle Down die with Mark Blithe?

0:44.4

Those were just a few of our favorite episodes, but judging by the massive amount of downloads on this one,

0:50.2

we'd say this is one of your favorites.

0:53.2

Dig corporate greed break the supply chain with Rakhim Mabud from the Groundwork Collaborative,

0:59.3

which was released back in March.

1:01.7

This episode exposes how the supply chain was actually designed.

1:06.1

Not for reliably getting goods to people, but for you guessed it, maximizing profit.

1:12.8

So happy holidays and happy listening from all of us here at pitchfork economics.

1:19.2

There is no doubt that we have more of a corporate greed problem today

1:25.5

than we have an underlying inflation problem today.

1:28.3

A series of policy choices over the last 50 years have given these mega corporations

1:33.5

an incredible amount of power over our supply chains.

1:36.6

70% of low-income households reporting hardship at the same time.

1:44.0

All the biggest companies in America are reporting record profits.

...

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