Trump proposals and what actually gets accomplished (5 Viewers)
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Largest grocery conglomerates profit margins would dispute that.
Kroger 1.84%.
Walmart 2.7%.
Costco 2.95%
Albertsons 0.78%
Target 3.33%
Dollar General 1.93%
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In 2023, major grocery chains in the U.S. engaged in significant stock buyback:
- Walmart authorized $9.9 billion in share repurchases, which marked a 277% increase compared to 2021. This decision coincided with rising prices on staple items, contributing to their substantial revenue growth
Jacobin
Kroger executed $1.6 billion in stock buybacks while also distributing $589 million in dividends. The company benefited from increased prices that supported its strong financial performance
Jacobin
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These buybacks primarily benefit shareholders by increasing the stock's value but have sparked criticism, particularly as these companies continue raising prices on essential goods. Critics argue that these funds could instead be used to invest in lowering consumer costs
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What is your source ?
- Kroger: Reported a gross profit margin of approximately 22.2%, with factors like lower supply chain costs and sourcing benefits contributing to this figure
Kroger Investor Relations
Drug Store News
.
- Walmart: Achieved a gross profit margin of 24.4% in 2023, consistent with its strategy of maintaining operational efficiencies and competitive pricing
Kroger Investor Relations
stco**: Known for low margins, Costco reported a gross profit margin of around 13.4%, emphasizing its membership-driven model and cost control efforts .
- **A: Operated with a gross profit margin of 28.3%, supported by its pricing initiatives and private-label products .
- Target: Pss profit margin of 23.6%, influenced by increased inventory costs and markdowns .
- Dollar General: Recss profit margin of 31.3%, reflecting its focus on high-margin items and private-label expansion .
“
Net Profit Margin vs. Gross Profit Margin
Gross profit margin is the proportion of money left over from revenues after accounting for the cost of goods sold (COGS). COGS measures the cost of raw materials and expenses associated directly with creating the company’s primary product, not including overheadcosts such as rent, utilities, freight, or payroll.1”
Stock buybacks are not included as an expense in computing net profit margin. Stock buybacks are generated from net profits or corporate loans. After the books are closed.
And those stock buybacks are responsible for a big chunk of the income tax revenue that the top 10% pay.
Net profit is what’s left after all the expenses.
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Only if held for less than a year. Long-term capital gains are taxed (if held for more than a year) at preferential rates, which can be 0%, 15%, or 20%, depending on the individual's income level.
So the increased profit used to buy back stocks could literally in some cases be tax free for the stockholder. And Walmarts $9.9 billion in share repurchases, which marked a 277% increase compared to 2021 clearly show that their prices are higher than generel inflation justify.
Another way to increase profit at the expense of the consumer is this
https://www.newsweek.com/lawmakers-raise-concerns-about-dynamic-pricing-kroger-1970110
Stock awards are taxed as regular income. Not capital gains.
And they use ESL to reduce prices as well.
J-DONK
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Just so everyone understands why this is a dishonest metric:
If MAP was a grocery store we buy 10 bottles of Grey Goose at 10 dollars a bottle. We sell those bottles for 10.30. After a week, we have sold out. We now have 103 dollars. We stash the 3 bucks, and buy another 10 bottles. We do this every week for an entire year. 52x3=156.
You don't need massive margins on products with volume. This is why grocery stores with small profit margins are doing massive stock buybacks.
Edit to add: You want to make this point even clearer. Another sector with higher, but not crazy margins? Healthcare. UHC CEO got shot over a 6% profit margin.
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We are not talking about stock awards but about stock buy back which increases the value of stocks already held. That is why I mentioned capital gains tax.
CoolBrees
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RSUs are taxed as income.
Preferred stock is not.
And net profit is another name for margin. That is profits after everybody- including the company itself - has been paid their share including interest.
So 1-3% margin sounds small until you notice that Walmart generates over a $4.5 billion in margin or net profit.
They take this money and buy equipment (eol on a refrigeration cooler is a 5 year depreciation for example) and undeveloped or underutilized real estate they can depreciate from the ledgers.
Their balance sheet shows they have over 1.8 billion CoH. This isn't operating capital this is whatever they want it to be money, tax free.
So looking at WM, they have over $6 billion in cash, with over 7 billion in operating capital. Or 13 billion CoH.
Their margin was 2.7%, which is a 864% increase Y/Y. Explains why their stock is up 77% y/y. So yes, price increases helped Wallyworld out immensely, unless someone would like to argue they were able to reduce their costs by billions without changing their operation at all.
But Kroger says hold my profit driving beer.
Their year has been down. Awww. Poor grocery barons. From their Oct earnings call they are down big y/y and missed all of the important projections: revenue, market share, net profit and profit margin.
So why has their stock price gone up by 38% y/y and up 122% over five? Well let's take a look....
Their margin is at 1.87%. Their net income is only 600MM. Operating income up 1.4%. So why is their stock up?
Well first their margin last year was 5% and their y/y cash position is up 10.56 billion, or 1600% increase y/y. But revenues were down and missed projection all year; how does that jive?
www.nbcnews.com
Oh.
Preferred stock is not.
And net profit is another name for margin. That is profits after everybody- including the company itself - has been paid their share including interest.
So 1-3% margin sounds small until you notice that Walmart generates over a $4.5 billion in margin or net profit.
They take this money and buy equipment (eol on a refrigeration cooler is a 5 year depreciation for example) and undeveloped or underutilized real estate they can depreciate from the ledgers.
Their balance sheet shows they have over 1.8 billion CoH. This isn't operating capital this is whatever they want it to be money, tax free.
So looking at WM, they have over $6 billion in cash, with over 7 billion in operating capital. Or 13 billion CoH.
Their margin was 2.7%, which is a 864% increase Y/Y. Explains why their stock is up 77% y/y. So yes, price increases helped Wallyworld out immensely, unless someone would like to argue they were able to reduce their costs by billions without changing their operation at all.
But Kroger says hold my profit driving beer.
Their year has been down. Awww. Poor grocery barons. From their Oct earnings call they are down big y/y and missed all of the important projections: revenue, market share, net profit and profit margin.
So why has their stock price gone up by 38% y/y and up 122% over five? Well let's take a look....
Their margin is at 1.87%. Their net income is only 600MM. Operating income up 1.4%. So why is their stock up?
Well first their margin last year was 5% and their y/y cash position is up 10.56 billion, or 1600% increase y/y. But revenues were down and missed projection all year; how does that jive?
Kroger and Albertsons are spending billions to reward shareholders after their blocked merger
The grocery store operators had said they’d be able to cut prices by combining, but regulators and courts disagreed. Now they’re investing in stock buybacks.
www.nbcnews.comOh.
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MT15
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Well, one of Kroger’s execs was forced to admit they were price-gouging eggs a few months ago. He was under oath in front of one of the Congressional committees. This was after Harris had made her proposal about price-gouging. She was right about that.
Optimus Prime
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Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social)
When I lecture about New Deal banking reforms, I note that some of the key measures — like Glass Steagall — were repealed by the right with disastrous results like the 2008 financial meltdown, but ha ha, no one will ever be stupid enough to kill FDIC and bring back the old bank runs. [contains...
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Optimus Prime
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The Republican party has shellacked its clean-cut corporatism, in recent years, with a veneer of economic populism.
See JD Vance’s pseudo-criticisms of Wall Street, so gestural they could be mistaken for an interpretive dance routine, or Donald Trump’s stint as a McDonald’s “employee”, which seemed more inspired by his contempt for Kamala Harris than his affection for fry cooks.
But when it comes to how the second Trump administration actually intends to govern, there have already been plenty of signals that they intend to target and weaken – if not outright destroy – the parts of government most beneficial to working people.
And right now, the agency most clearly in their crosshairs is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
While there’s new fervor behind rightwing efforts to undermine the CFPB – or, indeed, “delete” it, as Elon Musk recently tweeted – these attacks have been ongoing since the agency’s inception.
In his first term, in fact, Trump slashed the CFPB’s budget, appointed a vocal critic to run it and rolled back regulations protecting consumers from predatory practices.
Trump and his nearly-half-trillionaire “first buddy” feel threatened for good reason: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is one of the few federal agencies created explicitly to help average Americans, and actually given authority to do so.
Its efforts have represented some of the Biden administration’s most impactful advances for working people – and gutting it would be among the most devastating anti-consumer moves the Trump administration could make.
The CFPB was born out of the 2008 financial crisis, which saw almost 400 banks fold and American households lose about $17tn in wealth (that’s 42 Elon Musks).
The popular narrative rightfully blames predatory lending and securities fraud, but those lapses were only possible because of decades-long bipartisan deregulation.
In response, the then Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren proposed a federal agency to centralize regulation of the consumer financial sector, work which had been spread thin across seven different agencies.
Rather than being “duplicative”, as Musk has claimed, the CFPB began as a novel effort to make government more responsive, effective and – indeed – efficient.
But not until the current directorship of Rohit Chopra did the CFPB begin fulfilling its true potential. Since his appointment in 2021, Chopra has cracked down on exploitative consumer practices with a fervor not seen since Upton Sinclair stepped into a meatpacking plant.
In the last year, the agency has banned excessive credit card late fees, saving consumers $10bn annually. It has started regulating “buy now, pay later” lenders, which often leave buyers on the hook for expensive purchases they return.
It has created a registry of businesses who have repeatedly engaged in illegal practices, finally bringing a tough-on-crime approach to “corporate recidivism”.
And just last week, the CFPB announced a rule capping overdraft fees that will return another $5bn to consumers every year.……
www.theguardian.com
See JD Vance’s pseudo-criticisms of Wall Street, so gestural they could be mistaken for an interpretive dance routine, or Donald Trump’s stint as a McDonald’s “employee”, which seemed more inspired by his contempt for Kamala Harris than his affection for fry cooks.
But when it comes to how the second Trump administration actually intends to govern, there have already been plenty of signals that they intend to target and weaken – if not outright destroy – the parts of government most beneficial to working people.
And right now, the agency most clearly in their crosshairs is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
While there’s new fervor behind rightwing efforts to undermine the CFPB – or, indeed, “delete” it, as Elon Musk recently tweeted – these attacks have been ongoing since the agency’s inception.
In his first term, in fact, Trump slashed the CFPB’s budget, appointed a vocal critic to run it and rolled back regulations protecting consumers from predatory practices.
Trump and his nearly-half-trillionaire “first buddy” feel threatened for good reason: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is one of the few federal agencies created explicitly to help average Americans, and actually given authority to do so.
Its efforts have represented some of the Biden administration’s most impactful advances for working people – and gutting it would be among the most devastating anti-consumer moves the Trump administration could make.
The CFPB was born out of the 2008 financial crisis, which saw almost 400 banks fold and American households lose about $17tn in wealth (that’s 42 Elon Musks).
The popular narrative rightfully blames predatory lending and securities fraud, but those lapses were only possible because of decades-long bipartisan deregulation.
In response, the then Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren proposed a federal agency to centralize regulation of the consumer financial sector, work which had been spread thin across seven different agencies.
Rather than being “duplicative”, as Musk has claimed, the CFPB began as a novel effort to make government more responsive, effective and – indeed – efficient.
But not until the current directorship of Rohit Chopra did the CFPB begin fulfilling its true potential. Since his appointment in 2021, Chopra has cracked down on exploitative consumer practices with a fervor not seen since Upton Sinclair stepped into a meatpacking plant.
In the last year, the agency has banned excessive credit card late fees, saving consumers $10bn annually. It has started regulating “buy now, pay later” lenders, which often leave buyers on the hook for expensive purchases they return.
It has created a registry of businesses who have repeatedly engaged in illegal practices, finally bringing a tough-on-crime approach to “corporate recidivism”.
And just last week, the CFPB announced a rule capping overdraft fees that will return another $5bn to consumers every year.……
Trump will destroy the government agencies that most help working people | Katrina vanden Heuvel
For all its supposed ‘populism’, the new administration will probably target offices that protect consumers
Trump’s comments regarding energy are naive at best. Petroleum is a completely global integrated market place. The producers are under no obligation to keep crude and refined products in the U.S. In addition, fracking which has been the primary driver of the ramping up of production requires higher crude prices to keep production economically viable. Fracking also is a method that requires continual chasing to frack more and more as fracking wells produce far less per individual well and deplete faster per individual well than traditional production methods.RSUs are taxed as income.
Preferred stock is not.
And net profit is another name for margin. That is profits after everybody- including the company itself - has been paid their share including interest.
So 1-3% margin sounds small until you notice that Walmart generates over a $4.5 billion in margin or net profit.
They take this money and buy equipment (eol on a refrigeration cooler is a 5 year depreciation for example) and undeveloped or underutilized real estate they can depreciate from the ledgers.
Their balance sheet shows they have over 1.8 billion CoH. This isn't operating capital this is whatever they want it to be money, tax free.
So looking at WM, they have over $6 billion in cash, with over 7 billion in operating capital. Or 13 billion CoH.
Their margin was 2.7%, which is a 864% increase Y/Y. Explains why their stock is up 77% y/y. So yes, price increases helped Wallyworld out immensely, unless someone would like to argue they were able to reduce their costs by billions without changing their operation at all.
But Kroger says hold my profit driving beer.
Their year has been down. Awww. Poor grocery barons. From their Oct earnings call they are down big y/y and missed all of the important projections: revenue, market share, net profit and profit margin.
So why has their stock price gone up by 38% y/y and up 122% over five? Well let's take a look....
Their margin is at 1.87%. Their net income is only 600MM. Operating income up 1.4%. So why is their stock up?
Well first their margin last year was 5% and their y/y cash position is up 10.56 billion, or 1600% increase y/y. But revenues were down and missed projection all year; how does that jive?
Kroger and Albertsons are spending billions to reward shareholders after their blocked merger
The grocery store operators had said they’d be able to cut prices by combining, but regulators and courts disagreed. Now they’re investing in stock buybacks.
Oh.
Optimus Prime
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guess this can go here
tough shirt, take your crocodile tears over judicial shenanigans and shove them where the sun don't shine
and as always, fork off McConnell
============
With little more than a month to go before Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, a set of federal judges who previously announced retirements are pulling back those decisions. And Republicans are none too pleased.
Most prominent among the federal jurists to reverse a retirement announcement is Judge James Wynn of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. His name vanished from a list of pending vacancies over the weekend, joining two district court judges in North Carolina — Algenon Marbley and Max Cogburn — in pulling back their decisions once it became clear President Joe Biden would not be able to appoint their successors.
In a letter to Biden, Wynn wrote “that, after careful consideration, I have decided to continue in regular active service” on the bench. All three were appointed by Democratic presidents.
Their decisions serve to deny Trump further bench vacancies to fill as he hopes to capitalize on his push to move the federal judiciary rightward. Though judges routinely time retirements to allow a desired president to appoint their successors, the GOP backlash has been consistent and heated.
“Judge Wynn's brazenly partisan decision to rescind his retirement is an unprecedented move that demonstrates some judges are nothing more than politicians in robes,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), whose state is part of the circuit, in a statement over the weekend. “The Senate Judiciary Committee should hold a hearing on his blatant attempt to turn the judicial retirement system into a partisan game, and he deserves the ethics complaints and recusal demands from the Department of Justice heading his way.”
Tillis isn’t alone in his criticisms, as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has previously warned judges of consequences should they rescind previously announced retirements.
“Never before has a circuit judge unretired after a presidential election,” McConnell said on the Senate floor on Dec. 2. “It’s literally unprecedented. And to create such a precedent would fly in the face of a rare bipartisan compromise on the disposition of these vacancies.”.............
tough shirt, take your crocodile tears over judicial shenanigans and shove them where the sun don't shine
and as always, fork off McConnell
============
With little more than a month to go before Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, a set of federal judges who previously announced retirements are pulling back those decisions. And Republicans are none too pleased.
Most prominent among the federal jurists to reverse a retirement announcement is Judge James Wynn of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. His name vanished from a list of pending vacancies over the weekend, joining two district court judges in North Carolina — Algenon Marbley and Max Cogburn — in pulling back their decisions once it became clear President Joe Biden would not be able to appoint their successors.
In a letter to Biden, Wynn wrote “that, after careful consideration, I have decided to continue in regular active service” on the bench. All three were appointed by Democratic presidents.
Their decisions serve to deny Trump further bench vacancies to fill as he hopes to capitalize on his push to move the federal judiciary rightward. Though judges routinely time retirements to allow a desired president to appoint their successors, the GOP backlash has been consistent and heated.
“Judge Wynn's brazenly partisan decision to rescind his retirement is an unprecedented move that demonstrates some judges are nothing more than politicians in robes,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), whose state is part of the circuit, in a statement over the weekend. “The Senate Judiciary Committee should hold a hearing on his blatant attempt to turn the judicial retirement system into a partisan game, and he deserves the ethics complaints and recusal demands from the Department of Justice heading his way.”
Tillis isn’t alone in his criticisms, as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has previously warned judges of consequences should they rescind previously announced retirements.
“Never before has a circuit judge unretired after a presidential election,” McConnell said on the Senate floor on Dec. 2. “It’s literally unprecedented. And to create such a precedent would fly in the face of a rare bipartisan compromise on the disposition of these vacancies.”.............
- Banned
- #89
Precedents only matter if Republicans break them........../s
Optimus Prime
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Republicans only care about precedents when Dems do the same thing they did (and fully intend to do again)
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