On 5/22/2024, during senate hearing, Kennedy questioned Owens, Maxwell, Antoni, Michel in Banking
Kennedy: You think they’re price-fixing?
Witness: In some cases, absolutely.
Kennedy: Okay, name the four companies that you are accusing of price-fixing in the grocery sector or more broadly. The four you’ve been talking about, I mean. So I think, name me every company that you think is price-fixing in violation of the antitrust law.
Witness: Yeah, I mean, so the most recent example that I think is worth considering is—
Kennedy: if you don’t mind, we’ll come back and do the examples. Name me the companies who you’re accusing of price-fixing.
Witness: Well, the first one is Agrats, which the Department of Justice has sued for price-fixing.
Kennedy: Who else?
Witness: You know, in the grocery sector, we’ve got Walmart, we’ve got Kroger, and—
Kennedy: Walmart? Walmart is price-fixing?
Witness: No, I haven’t accused them of price-fixing. What No, what I’ve said is that they’re able—
Kennedy: Start over here. Price-fixing is a serious crime, doc. You can go to jail for that, and I want to be clear. I understand your testimony. Who are you accusing of price-fixing?
Witness: Yeah, look, my testimony clearly states that—
Kennedy: No, tell me which companies you’re accusing of price-fixing. You said some were price-fixing, and I want to know which ones. I mean, look, I may report them myself.
Witness: The company that’s absolutely under investigation by the DOJ—
Kennedy: Which ones are price-fixing?
Witness: I think the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice should take a close look at the four major grocers. They should take a close look at the four major meat packers.
Kennedy: Answer my question. There’s pending litigation. Which companies are price-fixing?
Witness: Tyson is a great example. The large meat packer.
Kennedy: Okay, who else?
Witness: The big four meat packers are all—
Kennedy: Who else?
Witness: Like I said, I think looking at the four major grocers makes sense.
Kennedy: Which four are price-fixing? Walmart, Alberts—
Witness: Walmart’s price-fixing?
Kennedy: What? Wait, I didn’t say they were. I said they should take a close look.
…
Kennedy: Who’s number three?
Witness: I’ve also said that I think the Department of Justice and the FTC should take a close look at—
Kennedy: Who’s number three? Is Walmart price-fixing?
Witness: I think they should take a look at it.
Kennedy: Is Walmart price-fixing?
Witness: They should take a look at it.
Kennedy: Is Walmart price-fixing?
Witness: I can’t currently answer that question.
Kennedy: You won’t answer that question. How about Albertsons? Is Albertsons price-fixing?
…
Kennedy: I think it’s been well established that if we discovered life on Mars tomorrow, Joe Biden would send it money. To what extent has his deficit spending contributed to inflation? And do you know of any of these companies? Would you care to accuse someone of a crime here today? If anybody else would just let me know if somebody is price-fixing, I want to know. I’ll report them myself, and I’m going to want to see your evidence. Otherwise, you subject yourself to defamation. But let me go back to my original question. What was it? Mars? Was it Mars or Jupiter? I forgot. Is the amount of money that President Biden has insisted on spending contributed to inflation? Duh, what’s your answer to that?
Witness: Well, Senator, regarding the price-fixing, I have no evidence because there is no evidence of that, so I can’t provide that to you. But to answer the hypothetical on Mars, absolutely, that would add to inflation. And yes, the deficit spending under this president, but really under any president, doesn’t matter that it’s Joe Biden in particular in the White House doing it. Any person who did what he did would have the exact same effect, which is this massive run-up in prices because, again, it’s not that things are more valuable; it’s that the dollar is worth less, so it takes more dollars to buy exactly what you used to. And if you look at, again, the Biden administration’s own data, these aren’t my figures, these are figures from the Biden Administration, they show that prices paid by businesses and prices paid by consumers have gone up almost exactly the same, about 19% during his tenure. And so this idea that somehow the prices that consumers, that you, I, that all of the people that you represent are paying are somehow the cause of anything other than cost simply being passed on to them, the data simply don’t support that.
Kennedy: Okay, how about you, doc?
Witness: As far as the fiscal stimulus stuff, you know that’s a standard economic model, and you can go back and look. Multiple people, Olivier Blanchard is one, some of the upper bound estimates on how big the
Why won’t you answer my question? Who are you accusing of price-fixing? life on Mars & deficit spending
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