A “cover of uncertainty” as a result of whipsaw tariffs have led businesses to time price increases with an unpredictable tariff environment, economists say.
  • tyler@programming.dev
    22·
    8 days ago

    No shit Sherlock. That’s how tariffs work. An example is steel, which my wife deals with. Let’s say the price of Chinese steel was $100 per foot before tariffs. Now it’s $200/ft. Well the Canadian supplier who was charging $200/ft before the tariffs isn’t gonna keep charging that. Their product is vastly better than the Chinese product. They’re gonna charge $250+. They are incentivized to raise prices since a large portion of the market’s prices have gone up.

    Everyone that even bothered to think about it for a single millisecond knew this was gonna happen.

    • BakerBagel@midwest.social
      91·
      8 days ago

      You’re giving corporations far too much credit. While that is a very textbook example of the drawbacks to tarrifs, the fact remains that companies will ALWAYS price gouge if they think they can get away with it. People are conscious of price increases, but we are terrible at noticing the difference between a 20% jump in prices vs a 50% jump. So companies are able to keep jacking up prices with minimal resistance. If people will complain the same amount for a small price jump as a large price jump, every company is going to just do the large price jump

      • tyler@programming.dev
        21·
        7 days ago

        Nah I’m telling you what the salespeople for these companies have told my wife is the reason for the price increases. Salespeople suck but they’re not gonna lie about why prices increase.

        • propitiouspanda@lemmy.cafeEnglish
          4·
          7 days ago

          You’re both correct.

          Businesses know that customers know about tariffs. They know customers expect prices to go up because there is rhetoric to “justify” it. So that’s what they do. They raise prices.

          You also give some very good insight that I had not considered. As much as I try to fight back and reason about how we’re being exploited, even I couldn’t see how domestic businesses would use tariffs as an excuse to raise prices in the industries being “protected.”

          It’s all a fucking racket, and there are people who spend 8+ hours a day for years to figure out how to fuck us further.

        • BakerBagel@midwest.social
          51·
          7 days ago

          Sales people ABSOLUTELY lie about why prices increase. We just had a deal go through to buy a new printer because the sales person was lying saying the price would increase June 1st, but spoiler, it didn’t.

          • tyler@programming.dev
            2·
            7 days ago

            You’re buying one printer. My wife is buying $15 million worth of steel pipe. If they lie their company gets sued into oblivion. This isn’t some small time sales person.

            And to add on, that’s one example I’ve given you of one supplied item. The same has occurred with every one of her suppliers. Either they’re all colluding across multiple different industries and companies, or you know, that’s the actual reason.