Profits rather than labour costs and taxes have accounted for the lion’s share of domestic price pressures in the eurozone since 2021, according to the European Central Bank.

Europe’s companies are exploiting high inflation to increase their profit margins. Policymakers have repeatedly called for wage restraint but concerns are mounting that a bigger driver of the wave of price rises may be companies using inflation as an excuse to increase profit margins, a trend unions have described as “greedflation”.

A gathering of the ECB council was shown a slide presentation that revealed profit margins had been rising rather than falling – as would normally be expected when the price of raw materials and other business expenses such as transportation and wages rose.

“It’s clear that profit expansion has played a larger role in the European inflation story in the last six months or so,” said Paul Donovan, the chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management.

ECB looking out for price gouging as fears grow over ‘greedflation’ | European Central Bank | The Guardian

 In 2021, Amazon warehouses had a rate of 7.7 injuries per 100 workers, compared with 4.0 injuries for every 100 workers at all other warehouses. 

Amazon’s serious injury rate was 6.8 per 100 workers, compared with 3.3 for every 100 workers at all other warehouses.

Amazon’s ALB1 warehouse in Castleton, New York had the highest injury rate of any Amazon warehouse in 2021, with 19.8 serious injuries per 100 workers.

Michael Verrastro, who worked at Amazon’s ALB1, commented, “It’s sort of hypocritical for Amazon to claim that safety’s their number one issue. It’s a fallacy that they like to put forth that they’re more concerned about safety, when they clearly are not. They’re more concerned about profit.”

 Union organizer, Brett Daniels, at JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island in New York, said,  “Amazon’s constant disregard for safety is by design. Like many corporations, Amazon prioritizes profit over people.”

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha), delivered alert letters on ergonomic hazards at the Amazon warehouses detailing risk assessments that found numerous jobs at Amazon warehouses exposed workers to “high risk of serious musculoskeletal disorders”.

‘They’re more concerned about profit’: Osha, DoJ take on Amazon’s grueling working conditions | Amazon | The Guardian

The East Palestine derailment has prompted a wave of scrutiny into the railroad industry’s record of deregulation and blocking safety rules.

Train-brake rules were rolled back under the Trump administration and have not been restored; hazardous material regulations were watered down at the behest of the railroad industry; and railroad workers have been decrying the safety impacts incited by years of staffing cuts, poor working conditions and neglect by railroad corporations in favor of Wall Street investors.

Stephanie Griffin, a former Union Pacific carman, explains, “Most railroad workers are fighting against an entire system that only exists as a money-making apparatus to the wealthy. Those trains run through our towns, but they do not run next to rich folks’ homes, nor next to our politicians’ homes. This is a top-down problem.”

 “The railroads have opposed any government regulation on train length; they have sought waivers to eliminate having trained inspectors monitor railcars; and they have pushed back on the train crew staffing rule,” said Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (Blet) national president Eddie Hall in a statement after the NTSB preliminary report on the East Palestine derailment.

“The railroads and their trade association the Association of American Railroads (AAR) employ armies of lobbyists on Capitol Hill who are there not to promote safety regulations but to slow the implementation of federal safety regulations – or attempt to eliminate them altogether.”

Edward Wytkind, who served as president of the Transportation Trades Department (TTD) at the AFL-CIO, which represents the unions in the railroad industry, said that throughout his 25 years at the TTD, the railroad industry blocked all attempts to pass legislation or advance regulation on safety.

“From attempts to address worker fatigue, lack of coherent mandatory safety plans, increasing transparency to the public and first responders about what trains are carrying, the dangers of such long trains, or establishing floors for minimum train crew, the railroads blocked everything,” said Wytkind.

Jeff Kurtz, a retired locomotive engineer of 40 years in Iowa, said the railroad industry talking points on safety in response to the East Palestine derailment have been misleading, as the industry has trended toward adding several more railcars to trains, making them much longer, which can make derailments more damaging when they do occur. Despite safety concerns, this trend has been pursued to further cut costs and increase efficiency. The size of the train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio was 150 cars, more than twice the average length of trains operated by major railroads from 2008 to 2017. There is currently no limit imposed by the Federal Railroad Administration on train length.

Leaked audio reveals US rail workers were told to skip inspections as Ohio crash prompts scrutiny to industry | Ohio train derailment | The Guardian

 Women have been harder hit by the cost of living crisis because they tend to earn less.

More than 2 million women are paid below the real living wage, the Living Wage Foundation said, representing 14% of all working women, compared with 1.4 million (9%) men. Overall, 60% of all jobs that pay below the real living wage are held by women.

Katherine Chapman, director of the Living Wage Foundation, said the research “demonstrates the reality that millions of women in the UK – often cleaners, catering staff and care workers – are more likely to be trapped in low-paying, insecure and precarious jobs.”

The level of the real living wage is calculated annually by the foundation, based on the costs of the basics required for a decent standard of living. The rate is currently £10.90 an hour across the UK, and £11.95 in London.

The charity found that women are more likely to be on zero-hours work contracts, representing 13% of female and 9% of male workers.

Women are also less likely to be paid for a shift when it is cancelled. More than quarter of women on such contracts said they were not paid anything for a cancelled shift, compared with 17% of men.

The survey also highlighted the impact of low pay on female workers during the cost of living crisis, where three-quarters of women felt that their pay increased their anxiety levels, compared with 65% of men, while more women than men said their pay reduced their quality of life.

Women in UK ‘more likely than men to be on low pay and struggling’ | Living wage | The Guardian

 The 10-year route to settling permanently in the UK was one of a series of deliberately tough measures introduced in 2012 as part of a drive to cut net migration. The route is available to people who have strong ties to the UK, such as those having a British child, but who do not earn enough to qualify for faster settlement routes. The cost of settlement has risen dramatically, and fees now exceed £12,800 for each adult, over the course of the decade-long qualification period. Most of the estimated 170,000 people who are seeking to secure the right to remain permanently in the UK through the 10-year route are in low paid occupations, often care workers, cleaners and nursing assistants. 

Applicants must accrue 10 years of continuous lawful residence before they can apply for indefinite leave to remain. The requirement to reapply for renewed visas every 30 months leaves families feeling very insecure. They are subject to the “no recourse to public funds” provision, meaning they cannot usually access benefits or social housing if they need to, or free school meals for their children. Those who find themselves unable to afford the fees every 2.5 years can become undocumented, and become illegal migrants. Home Office delays in the visa renewal process add to the difficulties experienced by people on this route.

Researchers say the full effects of the policy are only now starting to be felt.

More than half the people trying to secure permanent residency in the UK through the Home Office’s “devastating and punishing” 10-year route struggle to afford food and pay bills, a survey has indicated. Researchers said the design of the scheme led to “poverty and insecurity for many”.

A survey of more than 300 people currently or recently making this application process found that 62% struggled to meet the cost of electricity, heating, water and internet, and 57% struggled to buy food, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research study.

Half of people trying to get permanent UK residency by 10-year route struggle to afford food | Home Office | The Guardian

 German inflation accelerated in February, rising 9.3% on the year and 1% on the month, Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reported on Wednesday.

The jump in consumer prices, harmonized to compare with other European Union countries, was higher than expected by the office’s economists.

According to the report, soaring energy and food prices, in particular, had a substantial impact on the top EU economy’s inflation rate. Preliminary data indicated that in February, food prices showed above-average growth of 21.8% compared with the same month of the previous year. “Despite the relief measures, energy prices were 19.1% higher in February 2023 than in February 2022,” Destatis said.

“Although the inflation rate may fall in the coming months because energy prices are unlikely to rise as strongly as they did in spring 2022, this does not mean that inflation is over,” Commerzbank economic researcher Ralph Solveen told Reuters, commenting on the data.

The Destatis report follows earlier releases from French and Spanish statistical offices which showed that surging food and energy prices had also dealt a blow to the Eurozone’s second and fourth-largest economies. Consumer prices in both countries resumed their upward trend in February, according to the reports.

Economists say inflation in the 20-nation Eurozone will continue rising in the coming months, prompting more interest rate hikes by the European Central Bank. The ECB has already promised to raise rates by 50 basis points to 3% in March, to get soaring inflation in the bloc under control. It may still need to raise interest rates significantly beyond March, as inflation remains too high, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel warned earlier.

Gott im Himmel! Where’s it all gone, Germany?

Interest owed on Germany’s public debt has soared from €4 billion ($4.2 billion) in 2021 to €40 billion (over $42 billion) currently, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner revealed on Monday.

“This is the money that we will not have enough of for other purposes in the future: education, digitalization and investment in climate protection. Thus, it makes economic sense to contain the growth of debt,” he wrote on Twitter.

At the same time, the minister noted that Germany would continue to strengthen its energy security, increase assistance to Ukraine and strengthen the national armed forces.

Germany’s public debt exceeds €2.3 trillion ($2.4 trillion) and, according to the International Monetary Fund, is 68.3% of the country’s GDP.

Last week, Lindner said in an interview with T-Online news portal that the increase in debt was due to emergency measures during the Covid-19 pandemic and the energy crisis. In this regard, he insisted that the government needed to limit its spending, and therefore the state would not be able to solve current economic problems such as falling wealth.

The EU’s biggest economy has been struggling to cope with skyrocketing energy costs. The nation, which relies mainly on natural gas to power its industry, has vowed to replace imports from its once major supplier – Russia – by as early as mid-2024. However, attempts to diversify gas supplies have contributed to the energy crunch. EU sanctions pressure, maintenance issues, and the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines have further exacerbated the problem.

This year, the German government plans to issue record debt to counter the deepening energy crisis.

According to the Federal Finance Agency, overall federal debt issuance will balloon to about €539 billion ($570 billion), sending servicing costs higher to €42.2 billion ($45 billion) from €15.3 billion ($16 billion).

Dave C.

 Laos is officially named the Lao People’s Democratic Republic or Lao PDR. Some left-wingers consider the country’s economy  to be “actually existing socialism.”

The UN said says Laos has become a “major transhipment point” for drug traffickers moving their product into Thailand, the wider Mekong region and further afield in the Asia Pacific. 

143 million meth tablets were seized in Laos in 2021 after entering the country from the Shan State of neighbouring Myanmar. In the first month of 2022, Laos authorities seized 36 million pills and almost 600kg of crystal meth. 

“These large seizures point towards organised crime groups increasingly diverting their trafficking operations through Lao PDR,” the UN said.

The one-party state is also to the capitalist spirit of the Kings Romans casino complex in the country’s northwestern Bokeo province. It is a Chinese-owned gambling city. The sky is lit up by light shows and filled with the techno music techno beat from the Kings Romans casino complex. Maseratis and Ranger Rovers are seen alongside bright-red hammer-and-sickle flags while heavy trucks transport building materials and excavate foundations for luxury, multi-storey condominiums being built. Building work is going on in earnest and countless palm trees have been planted along the city’s roadsides, probably in the hope of turning this baking-hot corner of Laos into a tree-lined Macau-style retreat for wealthy gamblers. They mostly come from China, although some come from Thailand, too.  A new airport is under construction. The casino’s operators want the airport to facilitate the arrival of international gamblers.

 Kings Romans casino operates in what is the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The growing gambling complex under a lengthy lease bestowed by the Laos government to Zhao Wei, a 70-year-old Chinese businessman. In 2018, the United States Treasury Department described Zhao and his enterprises as a “transnational criminal organisation” that had engaged “in an array of horrendous illicit activities”.

“Since 2014, Thai, Lao, and Chinese authorities have seized large narcotics shipments that have been traced to the Kings Romans Casino,” the Treasury said.

The Treasury also alleged that the “Zhao Wei crime network” engaged in child prostitution, human trafficking and trafficking of endangered as well as vulnerable wildlife.

 The Kings Romans owner Zhao, a former timber trader, who got his start in Macau’s gambling scene said his complex was a “drug-free zone”. Shortly after an Al Jazeera TV team’s visit, police discovered 20 sacks of methamphetamine pills on the grounds of the SEZ valued at $1.6m.

“It has long been implicated in human trafficking and drug smuggling, and caters to a predominantly Chinese high roller clientele seeking out bear-paw soup and tiger-bone wine to go with their rounds of baccarat and call girls,” the South China Morning Post wrote of Kings Romans in October.

“Laos treats the area like an autonomous state, subject to its own rules,” the SCMP added.

What happens in the SEZ, though, is a matter for Kings Romans security. Zhao’s people controlled law and order in the casino city. The Laotian army has a presence of fewer than 30 soldiers to protect the economic zone, which was to cover an area of 3,000 hectares (11.6 square miles) when first given the go-ahead. In October, the Laos government presented Zhao with a medal for bravery owing to his support for public security and national defence in his casino city.

Kings Romans is physically in Laos but everything else is very much Chinese. Chinese is the first language spoken and China’s yuan is the preferred currency in the enclave where an iced coffee at the small Starbucks franchise costs close to $10.

‘Tip of the spear’: Battling the Golden Triangle’s drug lords | Drugs News | Al Jazeera

 Inflation in France will accelerate to reach 10% in March but the state will “break daily prices” to tame the rise, government spokesperson Olivier Veran warned on Wednesday.

The French consumer price index increased to 6.2%, up from 6.0% in January, according to preliminary data from the statistics bureau Insee, issued on Tuesday.

Food inflation edged higher to 14.5% from 13.3%, service prices were up to 2.9% from 2.6%, while the prices of manufactured goods rose slightly to 4.6% from 4.5%, with the end of winter sales, according to the report. Energy prices jumped 14.0% year-on-year in February, Insee said. The EU-harmonized index stood at 7.2% compared to 7% in January.

The French government expects inflation at 10% this month, meaning that food prices will also increase by 10%, according to Veran. He warned that “this is not a one-time price increase; this is an annual inflation between March 2022 and 2023. Obviously, this affects the consumer basket and everyday life” for French households.

“We work with large retailers, with manufacturers, so that, ultimately, when a French person goes shopping, whether in one brand or another, he can go and buy the products he needs on a daily basis at affordable prices,” the official added.

“We want everyone to take their share,” Veran stated, recalling that French President Emmanuel Macron had asked supermarket groups on Saturday to contain their margins to fight soaring food prices.

Earlier, the country’s authorities introduced the so-called “anti-inflation food basket” comprising about 50 basic items and obliged large retailers not to hike prices on these essentials. The measure is due to take effect this month.

RT 2\3\23

Dave C.

Climate and agricultural policies aimed at bolstering carbon markets will fail to curb planet-heating emissions while enabling powerful agribusiness corporations to greenwash their polluting operations and augment their control over the food system, according to Agricultural Carbon Markets, Payments, and Data: Big Ag’s Latest Power Grab report, published by Friends of the Earth and the Open Markets Institute, an anti-monopoly think tank.

The report warns that U.S. lawmakers from both major parties have embraced a “market-based” approach—centered around the buying and selling of so-called “carbon offset” credits generated through minor tweaks to industrial monoculture production—that is likely to tighten Big Ag’s chemical-intensive stranglehold on the food system and disenfranchise small-scale farmers, all while failing to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.

As the report explains: “The idea begins with granting credits to farmers who adopt certain practices, such as planting more trees and cover crops, that are supposed to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Farmers then receive compensation for their efforts by selling these credits to other entities, typically large corporations. These corporations, in turn, use their purchases of such credits to justify claims of environmental responsibility.”

Though these corporations “may still be emitting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, they claim to have ‘offset’ these emissions by paying others to pollute less or actively sequester carbon, often to the point of asserting that they now have a ‘net-zero’ climate impact,” states the report.

Despite mounting evidence of the ineffective or counterproductive nature of ‘net-zero’ commitments, one-fifth of the world’s biggest corporations have made them, meaning that demand for carbon offsets is growing, the report notes.

A recent investigation revealed that 94% of the rainforest carbon offsets sold by a leading market player provided no measurable climate benefits, casting further doubt on the very notions of ‘net-zero’ and ‘carbon neutrality’ that corporations promote in a bid to maintain or expand their own polluting activities while portraying themselves as green.

“Carbon markets have become a top strategy for agriculture and climate, despite a history of fraud, failure to reduce emissions, and corporate greenwashing,” report co-author Jason Davidson, senior food and agriculture campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said in a statement. “Such corporate schemes will strengthen the power of the largest agribusinesses, hand over private farm data, and fail to address the climate crisis.”

Report co-author Claire Kelloway, food program director for the Open Markets Institute explained, “Corporations are designed to serve their investors, not the public, and that’s exactly what these carbon offsetting schemes will do by locking farmers into their networks, protecting product sales, and stalling meaningful regulation.”

Big Ag Exploiting Carbon Markets to Intensify Grip on Food System: Report (commondreams.org)

 The number of UK children in food poverty has nearly doubled in the last year to almost 4 million. 

According to the Food Foundation thinktank, one in five (22%) of households reported skipping meals, going hungry or not eating for a whole day in January, up from 12% at the equivalent point in 2022.

After sustained price rises over the past year, grocery inflation currently stands at 17.1%, the highest level on record. 

An estimated 800,000 children in poverty do not qualify for free school meals. To be eligible households must have an annual income of under £7,400 before benefits and after tax. That threshold has been frozen since 2018, even though prices have risen since then.

Number of UK children in food poverty nearly doubles in a year to 4m | Food poverty | The Guardian