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all he did was back Just Stop Oil

Huawei and SMIC quietly rolled out a new Kirin 9000C processor.

Chinese foundry SMIC may have broken the 5nm process barrier, as evidenced by a new Huawei laptop listed with an advanced chip with 5nm manufacturing tech — a feat previously thought impossible due to U.S sanctions.

Major companies in the energy and food sectors amplified inflation in 2022 by passing on greater cost increases than needed to protect margins, according to a new report.

British think tanks the Institute For Public Policy Research and Common Wealth said in a report Thursday that big firms made inflation “peak higher and remain more persistent,” particularly within the oil and gas, food production and commodities sectors.

“We argue that market power by some corporations and in some sectors – including temporary market power emerging in the aftermath of the pandemic – amplified inflation,” the report said.

The author’s analysis of financial reports from 1,350 companies listed in the U.K., U.S., Germany, Brazil and South Africa found nominal profits were on average 30% higher at the end of 2022 than at the end of 2019.

This does not necessarily mean that overall profit margins have risen, but it does mean that higher prices have been shouldered by consumers, the authors said.

“Companies with (temporary) market power seemed to be able to protect their margins or even reap ‘excess profits’, setting prices higher than would be socially and economically beneficial,” they wrote.

The report stresses that corporate profits were not the sole driver of inflation and did not cause the energy market shock following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But the report authors argue that so-called “market power” has not been sufficiently captured in the current debate around the causes of inflation, particularly when compared with the impact from the labor market and rising wages.

“In an energy shock scenario, if costs were equally shared between wage earners and company owners, one would expect the rate of return to fall as firms do not increase prices fully to make up for higher costs, and wage earners do not fully keep up with inflation. But this is not what happened. A stable rate of return – for example, as seen in the UK – suggests pricing power by firms, which allowed them to increase prices to protect their margins,” it said.

It identified Shell , Exxon Mobil, Glencore and Kraft Heinz

as among the firms that saw profits “far outpace” inflation.

Glencore declined to comment when contacted by CNBC. The other companies did not respond.

Inflation began a steady march higher in mid-2020 amid a host of factors including global supply chain constraints, volatile food production conditions, tight labor markets, pandemic stimulus measures and the Russia-Ukraine war.

The impact of so-called “greedflation,” or companies raising prices more than needed to protect margins from higher input costs and market movements, has been contested.

Several analysts, along with policymakers including European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, have cited the issue as a potential contributing factor to inflation.

But what constitutes “greedflation” is not an exact science. This year, the boss of U.K. supermarket giant Tesco suggested that some food producers may be raising prices more than necessary and fueling inflation, a claim that was strongly denied by the industry.

Constantly with this. "Mayyyyyybe we were wrong to blame him?" Two women on their panel openly defending him and his failures, selecting calls that defend him and mark him up as a saint or hero. Boris Johnson should be in prison.

Not a brand new article but it was new to me

Internal 3M documents show:

• In the 1950s, 3M animal studies consistently found its PFAS chemicals were toxic.
• By the early 1960s, 3M knew the chemicals didn’t degrade in the environment.
• 3M knew by the 1970s its chemicals were widely present in the blood of the general U.S. population.
• A 1970 study of fish had to be abandoned “to avoid severe stream pollution” and because all the fish died. After being exposed to a chemical, the fish couldn’t stay upright and kept crashing into the fish tank and dying.
• By 1976, 3M knew the chemicals were in its plant workers’ blood at higher levels than normal.
• A study of a chemical’s effect on 20 rhesus monkeys in 1978 had to be aborted after 20 days because all the exposed monkeys died.
• In 1979, a 3M scientist warned that perfluorochemicals posed a cancer risk because they are “known to persist for a long time in the body and thereby give long-term chronic exposure.”
• In 1979, 3M lawyers advised the company to conceal a 3M chemical compound found in human blood.
• In 1983, 3M scientists concluded that concerns about its chemicals “give rise to legitimate questions about the persistence, accumulation potential, and ecotoxicity of fluorochemicals in the environment.”
• Purdy wrote in his resignation letter that in the 1990s, 3M told researchers not to write down their thoughts or have email discussions because of how their “speculations” might be viewed in legal discovery.
• 3M told employees to mark documents as “attorney-client privileged” regardless of whether attorneys were involved, the state alleged, and minutes of meetings were edited to omit references to health hazards.
• In 1997, 3M gave DuPont a “material safety data sheet” — which lays out potential hazards — for a chemical. It read, “Warning: contains a chemical which can cause cancer,” citing 1983 and 1993 studies by 3M and DuPont. But 3M removed the label that same year and continued to sell the products for decades without warning.

It just goes on and on like this. fuckin grim stuff

Oh shit oh fuck.

But on a more serious note, farms breeding huge amounts of animals that age fast and are super fertile is a huge environmental concern. When livestock escapes and hybridize with wild populations it will make a lot of areas barren.

Collapse is going to suck because its going to be a cascade of shitty capitalism-caused problems, not just one or two.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/12/7/as-retailer-reis-troubles-with-employees-continue-consumers-back-off

By Andy Hirschfeld Published On 7 Dec 20237 Dec 2023

Claire Chang, a visual merchandiser at sports goods retailer REI’s flagship location in New York City, was drawn to the company because of her then-blossoming love of the outdoors.

After working in an office setting, she said she looked for something a little less stressful. That’s what brought her to REI where she has now worked for six years.

The company, considered to be a progressive beacon in corporate America known for its support of sustainability and Indigenous rights, among other issues, aligned with her interests and values. However, starting in October 2020, Chang says that began to change for her.

At the time, Chang and her colleagues pushed the company for increased health and safety protection amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of this, she was part of the first store to vote to unionise.

She felt that the Washington state-based cooperative retailer, formally known as Recreational Equipment Inc, has dragged its feet on union negotiations since then. Chang says they are still fighting for their first union contract, and negotiations started in June 2022.

That began a long and drawn-out battle between her colleagues and the company – a fight that is anything but over, and in early November, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) filed a complaint on behalf of the workers with the National Labor Relations Board.

The complaint alleges the sporting goods cooperative took actions that RWDSU referred to as “emotional manipulation and retaliatory actions against workers, such as firings, changes to work schedules and disciplinary practices”.

Banking on REI’s reputation as a progressive company, Chang says she hoped they would operate in good faith on union negotiations, but that hasn’t been her experience.

“In reality, they [REI] have been fighting us every step of the way from the beginning,” Chang told Al Jazeera.

Chang says she saw surveillance tactics used in her store and alleges that the company brought in senior executives to talk to them.

Last month there were worker walkouts at locations in Minnesota, Massachusetts and Illinois.

That was in response to what the RWDSU said was the “retailer’s decision to unilaterally restructure jobs and working conditions in all of its stores”.

In mid-October, the company eliminated 275 jobs.

Meanwhile, REI changed law firms amid the negotiations, which she says essentially started the process all over again, while the 85-year-old company reported a record $3.85bn in sales in 2022.

In an investor release, the company said that “in 2022, REI put an additional $50 million toward pay raises for hourly employees and delivered another $92 million toward employee retirement and bonuses”.

However, Chang says that was not her experience. She alleges that the company withheld those raises from her location amid union negotiations. REI did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request to confirm the validity of these claims.

From a sales perspective, this year could be much different for the retailer – especially during this quarter, the holiday shopping season.

Thanks to a combination of more public pressure from the company’s already hyper-aware and socially conscious customer base, experts believe this could have an impact on holiday shopping.

“REI has a strong brand image associated with outdoor enthusiasts and a commitment to sustainability. If consumers perceive that the company is not living up to its values in terms of fair treatment of workers, it could erode trust and impact brand loyalty. This might prompt some consumers to reconsider shopping at REI during the holiday season,” said Linda Simpson, professor of financial literacy at Eastern Illinois University.

Chris Brinlee Jr is one of those consumers. Brinlee, who works in the outdoor industry, called out the sporting goods retailer on social media. On the company’s “cyberweek sale” Instagram post, he wrote, “I’d rather not spend any money at REI, ever, than to support a company that’s actively union busting.”

Brinlee Jr has more than 36,000 followers.

“One of the few ways as a consumer we can organise is choosing how and where we spend our money,” Brinlee told Al Jazeera.

“They are clearly acting against the interest of their employees,” he added.

“By going against the union, REI could be seen by its core consumer segments as going against its basic brand identity. Consumers are known to punish brands for transgressions,” Aparna Labroo, Professor of Marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business, told Al Jazeera.

That is exactly how Brinlee Jr feels. He shopped there easily once a month until he learned about the union-busting allegations at REI, and then he stopped. He says he’d consider returning when the company starts operating in good faith with its workers.

“The impact on consumer sentiment and shopping habits during the holiday season will depend on how the public perceives the union fight, how REI responds to the situation, and the values consumers prioritise when making purchasing decisions,” Simpson said.

Brinlee Jr’s position is far from isolated. Alex Bartolo, a wildlife biologist based in Long Beach, California, is among the other consumers that Al Jazeera spoke to who all say they are limiting or outright boycotting the store. Bartolo also has an REI credit card which he says he intends to cancel.

“I think if REI supported what their employees wanted, operated in good faith negotiations and stopped union busting, I would reconsider my opinion,” Bartolo told Al Jazeera.

REI did not respond to a request for comment.

Benjamin Zephaniah was a vegan, an anti-racist, a Palestine supporter, and an anarchist. For the last decade and a half he split his time between living in Beijing and a village near Spalding, Lincolnshire. Rest In Power.