Revealed: Top US Corporations Raising Prices on Americans Even as Profits Surge

[mahatmakanejeeves]

32. The IEA report aside, there's this:

I am not a commodities buyer for an airline, or a railroad, or a firm that operates intercontinental container ships.

I believe that buying fuel is like buying an airline ticket. If you walk up to the counter at the last minute, you are guaranteed to get the worse price.

Instead, you buy ahead of time and lock in a contracted price. You have to hope that your economists are able to estimate what the price is going to be in three months or six months or a year from, and negotiate your contracts with the suppliers accordingly.

If your economists are good at estimating, you make money. If your economists make a boo-boo, you go bankrupt.

Anybody can tell you what it costs today. It's the predicting that's the hard part.

You do the best you can. Sometimes you get the bear; sometimes the bear gets you.

Thanks for writing.