Farming is a risky business. Always has been. A federal program to keep farmers in business during droughts seems like a good idea to me. Sadly, it’s also a target for fraud:“On a normal day, the promising storms produced snow or rain that would fall onto a system of official weather stations at airstrips or town halls, into heated “tipping buckets.” When the teeter-totter buckets filled with a thimbleful of water, the seesaw tilted, dropping one...
Read More »Empty Promises, Big Paydays: Kroger and Albertsons CEOs Fail to Justify Largest Supermarket Merger in History
by American Economic Liberties Project Looks like tgings are being said that are no legally enforceable. Let me see . . . Deleted emails, Albertson’s CEO can walk away with a $40-something million bonus if he can close the deal, a special dividend to private equity investors worth $4 billion and paid with borrowed money, the $4 billion came after Albertsons swore to both a judge and to Congress that it was in “excellent financial condition.”...
Read More »FTC and grocery giants debate who real competitors are
More on the FTC investigating Albertsons and Kroger as to whether they are truly competitors. The issue being how much of the market-controlled now by each and what would result after Kroger acquires Albertsons. Both the FTC and Unions argue “FTC argues different stores have different use cases. FTC lead attorney Susan Musser noted “you can’t just get a single avocado at a Costco, while the union pointed out that many stores, unlike Kroger and...
Read More »Albertsons’ CEO claims text deletions weren’t intentional, concedes 1700+ may be gone
Last week CEO Vivek claimed most of his text messages were automatically deleted. Also and previously investigators were show messages going back and forth between players in this issue. Investigators asked those messages be kept. Apparently, those too have disappeared or portions of them have. It appears Albertsons has been milked by private entities Cerberus and Apollo who have been taking portions of equity out of Albertsons. In which case...
Read More »A history of xenophobia in America
I just finished reading “America for Americans: A history of xenophobia in the United States” by Erika Lee. It is an unsparing analysis of the way xenophobia is woven into the fabric of American law and culture.When you read “America for Americans,” does it conjure an image of native Americans asserting their rights to the lands that were over-run by western Europeans? Of course not. The people who use that expression are overwhelmingly whites of...
Read More »Day 3 of the Courts Review of the FTC v Kroger Merger
Devastating Impact of Proposed Kroger/Albertsons Merger on Good Union Jobs Scrutinized in Day 3 of Merger Hearing, Economic Liberties Portland, OR — After the third day of the Federal Trade Commission v. Kroger-Albertsons hearing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following summary. As posted by Research Manager Laurel Kilgour, reporting from Portland of the key arguments...
Read More »Day 2 of the Courts Review of the FTC v Kroger Merger
We have already posted on Grocery Stores artificially holding prices high and the use of another entity gathering those prices and supplying them to various entities. In day two, Kroger’s use of Albertson’s higher pricing to set their own pricing is a ” strategic avoidance of lowering pricing.” Read on, I will gather up Day Three for later tomorrow. Kroger’s Pricing Strategies and Market Control Scrutinized in Day 2 of Merger Hearing, Economic...
Read More »More on Why Albertsons Should Not Be Allowed to Combine with Kroger
We have shopped at both stores and also Frys which is also a part of Kroger. Of the three, Ftys is less costly. Our Frys always seems to be out of product. We end up at Bashas to fill out the rest of or grocery shopping, or Sprouts which has excellent veggies, or make the trip to WalMart which is on the other side of town. In any case, you will not save much. They all know what the other is charging. The real issue is, when there is a shortage, do...
Read More »Who is better on unions, Harris or Trump?
A fitting topic for Labor Day, 2024.Over at TPM, they have an extended discussion of the records of the Biden/Harris Administration vs the Trump/Pence administration regarding unions and workplace safety. Click the link to read the whole thing. I’ll keep the quotes here within fair use.“. . . three aspects of the candidates’ records are the most likely to sway union members one way or the other.“Federal workers“Trump signed three executive orders in...
Read More »An A1 Price Fixing Dream. You Know It’s There. But You Can’t Prove It.
I spent some time today adding to this piece in the hope of making it clear in explanation. What is occurring is many entities are using software which compares its pricing to what the market will bear. No one knows the others adding their data. However, the end result is what is being charged is particular markets for similar products. So, companies adjust their pricing. We’re Entering an AI Dystopia, by Rogé Karma The Atlantic If...
Read More »