Swamponomics: Looting Is the New Normal

(Photo by Ron Eisenberg/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Did modern-day progressivism destroy the U.S. economic system? Best Buy is “seeing more and more particularly organized retail crime.” Criminals stole about $200,000 in merchandise from an Apple retailer in Santa Rosa, CA. Culprits lately focused a Louis Vuitton retailer in Chicago and took roughly $100,000 price of merchandise. Crime sprees in San Francisco have gotten so dangerous that Walgreens closed 5 places in the metropolis. And that is simply the tip of the iceberg in a brand new pattern that U.S. retailers and trade observers are calling “organized retail theft.” Or, in case you are Charles Payne from the Fox Business Network, “organized looting.”

(Photo by Ron Eisenberg/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

According to a National Retail Federation report, these legal actions value companies roughly $700,000 per $1 billion in gross sales. A separate report from the Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail estimates that mobs of thieves have value brick-and-mortar retailers $45 billion in annual losses.

From smash-and-grabs to stealing items after which returning them for money to unsuspecting customer support representatives, these people are using all kinds of strategies in opposition to Corporate America and mom-and-pop distributors. Be it through the use of social media or simultaneous blitzes, if there’s a retailer to rob and loot, they may discover a means.

But what’s driving this growth? Experts have put ahead all kinds of opinions. Some say that the coronavirus pandemic has weighed on the public for too lengthy, leading to desperation. Others argue that progressive insurance policies of the final 20 years, resembling easing penalties for shoplifting, have facilitated this atmosphere.

Whatever the case could also be, American retailers proceed to be battered and overwhelmed in the post-pandemic economic system. While some public officers are paying lip service to regulation and order, their actions and remarks throughout the riots of summer time 2020 might have fueled this fireplace.

Dollar Tree Abandons the Buck

Dollar shops have functioned as locations for cash-strapped shoppers to buy reasonably priced home goods. From gentle bulbs to loaves of bread, many of those places have turn out to be essential for low- and middle-income buyers. But one firm specializing in gadgets promoting for $1 has chosen to boost its costs in the center of an inflationary atmosphere.

Dollar Tree lately introduced that it’s rising its costs completely. The publicly traded firm, previously often known as $1.00, confirmed that it’s mountain climbing its worth tags by 1 / 4 to $1.25. This is the first worth hike in its 35-year historical past.

The cause? It just isn’t essentially due to inflation. Instead, in keeping with Dollar Tree, clients have responded effectively to greater costs in markets the place it examined the $1.25 pricing level. Investors have additionally been bullish on the choice, with shares rallying about 50% since the final quarterly earnings name.

“[Customers] have also indicated they are seeing price increases across the market and that Dollar Tree is still providing the products they need at an undeniable value,” Dollar Tree stated in an announcement. “Lifting the one-dollar constraint represents a monumental step for our organization and we are enthusiastic about the opportunity to meaningfully improve our shoppers’ experience and unlock value for our stakeholders.”

Products promoting for a buck are the subsequent casualty in the Bidenflation economic system.

Red Friday on Wall Street

It might have been Black Friday on Main Street, but it surely was Red Friday on Wall Street Nov. 26. It was a massacre on the flooring of the New York Stock Exchange amid a pointy selloff throughout the U.S. monetary markets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average crashed greater than 900 factors under 35,000. The Nasdaq Composite Index plummeted greater than 350 factors to below 15,500. The S&P 500 shed 100 factors to finish the holiday-shortened buying and selling week under 4,600. Gold, pure gasoline, and corn have been the solely winners that day. Everyone else? Silver, copper, wheat, soybeans, gasoline, and heating oil contracts have been clobbered.

Investors have been spooked by the World Health Organization (WHO) asserting a new COVID pressure, named omicron, that was listed as a variant of concern. Although the worldwide physique has warned in opposition to knee-jerk reactions, officers acknowledged that elevated reinfection dangers are potential. WHO leaders notice that it may take weeks to find out how the variant would possibly have an effect on diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines. Countries have already taken motion, resembling imposing journey restrictions on nations in southern Africa.

Are buyers shopping for the dip additionally catching falling knives? Or are they making the most of paranoia infiltrating the equities enviornment? Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group, might need stated it finest in a notice: “Traders are putting the fear of this new strain ahead of the reality.” It seems that buyers realized the error of their methods, although. The monetary markets – minus pure gasoline – are rallying on Nov. 29, permitting the bulls to bear their chests in triumph.

So now, the subsequent query turns into: Will the Federal Reserve get scared and chorus from tapering the pandemic-era quantitative easing program any additional? The subsequent few weeks shall be an thrilling time in monetary markets.

~ Read extra from Andrew Moran.