Coles and Woolworths’ high market share has raised the risk of exploitative business practices. AU profit compared with UK and US data paints the most accurate picture.

According to a survey conducted in Canada in 2023, close to 52 percent of respondents from Nova Scotia believed grocery chain price gouging to be the main reason food prices have been rising in Canada. Conversely, close to 22 percent of those from Quebec believed the same.

Paramount Coffee Company is increasing prices as U.S. tariffs on imported coffee beans strain the Midwest coffee market.

Analysis of difference between newsvending and price gouging choices.

Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright reveals the company's plan to absorb costs from Trump's tariffs, avoiding price hikes, with efficient sourcing and innovative operations.

The inflation rate in the United States declined significantly between June 2022 and May 2025, despite rising inflationary pressures towards the end of 2024. The peak inflation rate was recorded in June 2022, at *** percent. In August 2023, the Federal Reserve's interest rate hit its highest level during the observed period, at **** percent, and remained unchanged until September 2024, when the Federal Reserve implemented its first rate cut since September 2021. By January 2025, the rate dropped to **** percent, signalling a shift in monetary policy. What is the Federal Reserve interest rate? The Federal Reserve interest rate, or the federal funds rate, is the rate at which banks and credit unions lend to and borrow from each other. It is one of the Federal Reserve's key tools for maintaining strong employment rates, stable prices, and reasonable interest rates. The rate is determined by the Federal Reserve and adjusted eight times a year, though it can be changed through emergency meetings during times of crisis. The Fed doesn't directly control the interest rate but sets a target rate. It then uses open market operations to influence rates toward this target. Ways of measuring inflation Inflation is typically measured using several methods, with the most common being the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The CPI tracks the price of a fixed basket of goods and services over time, providing a measure of the price changes consumers face. At the end of 2023, the CPI in the United States was ****** percent, up from ****** a year earlier. A more business-focused measure is the producer price index (PPI), which represents the costs of firms.

Descriptive statistics of inventory and price choices.

Major US steelmakers hike rebar prices by $60 per ton amid market fluctuations and demand changes.

Nucor Corporation raises hot-rolled coil prices for the fourth time in 2025, setting the new base at $820 per short tonne, reflecting dynamic market trends and trade policy influences.

The Volcker Shock was a period of historically high interest rates precipitated by Federal Reserve Chairperson Paul Volcker's decision to raise the central bank's key interest rate, the Fed funds effective rate, during the first three years of his term. Volcker was appointed chairperson of the Fed in August 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, as replacement for William Miller, who Carter had made his treasury secretary. Volcker was one of the most hawkish (supportive of tighter monetary policy to stem inflation) members of the Federal Reserve's committee, and quickly set about changing the course of monetary policy in the U.S. in order to quell inflation. The Volcker Shock is remembered for bringing an end to over a decade of high inflation in the United States, prompting a deep recession and high unemployment, and for spurring on debt defaults among developing countries in Latin America who had borrowed in U.S. dollars.

Monetary tightening and the recessions of the early '80s

Beginning in October 1979, Volcker's Fed tightened monetary policy by raising interest rates. This decision had the effect of depressing demand and slowing down the U.S. economy, as credit became more expensive for households and businesses. The Fed funds rate, the key overnight rate at which banks lend their excess reserves to each other, rose as high as 17.6 percent in early 1980. The rate was allowed to fall back below 10 percent following this first peak, however, due to worries that inflation was not falling fast enough, a second cycle of monetary tightening was embarked upon starting in August of 1980. The rate would reach its all-time peak in June of 1981, at 19.1 percent. The second recession sparked by these hikes was far deeper than the 1980 recession, with unemployment peaking at 10.8 percent in December 1980, the highest level since The Great Depression. This recession would drive inflation to a low point during Volcker's terms of 2.5 percent in August 1983.

The legacy of the Volcker Shock

By the end of Volcker's terms as Fed Chair, inflation was at a manageable rate of around four percent, while unemployment had fallen under six percent, as the economy grew and business confidence returned. While supporters of Volcker's actions point to these numbers as proof of the efficacy of his actions, critics have claimed that there were less harmful ways that inflation could have been brought under control. The recessions of the early 1980s are cited as accelerating deindustrialization in the U.S., as manufacturing jobs lost in 'rust belt' states such as Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania never returned during the years of recovery. The Volcker Shock was also a driving factor behind the Latin American debt crises of the 1980s, as governments in the region defaulted on debts which they had incurred in U.S. dollars. Debates about the validity of using interest rate hikes to get inflation under control have recently re-emerged due to the inflationary pressures facing the U.S. following the Coronavirus pandemic and the Federal Reserve's subsequent decision to embark on a course of monetary tightening.

Regression analysis of individual characteristics on average choice.

Probit analysis of chasing behavior.

In 2023, the value of grocery retail sales from supermarkets in Australia exceeded *** billion Australian dollars. This marked an increase from the previous year, in which grocery retail sales were valued at just shy of *** billion Australian dollars. Which supermarkets dominate Australia’s grocery landscape? Australia’s supermarket and grocery sector is highly concentrated, with the top four companies, Woolworths, Coles, German company Aldi, and IGA (Metcash) holding over ** percent of the country’s grocery retailer market share. The top two supermarkets, Woolworths and Coles, have extensive retail networks across the country, with around ***** stores in the Woolworths network as of May 2025, including Woolworths Supermarkets, Ampol Woolworths, and EG Ampol locations. Inquiry into Australia’s grocery sector Going into 2024, the price of groceries was one of the most pressing financial issues for many Australian households, with almost ** percent of consumers surveyed in April 2024 saying they felt grocery prices had increased compared to the previous year. Only ** percent of Australian consumers indicated in the same survey that, in their view, grocery products were priced fairly by supermarkets. Following price gouging allegations against major supermarket chains in the country, including Australia’s supermarket duopoly, Woolworths and Coles, the Australian Consumer Competition Commission (ACCC) launched its inquiry into the country’s grocery retail sector in January 2024. The inquiry endeavors to highlight key issues across the supermarket sector and introduce improved regulatory framework and pricing mechanisms, enabling better market access for smaller grocery retailers and discounters, as well as improving customer, supply chain contributor, and farmer satisfaction.

Analysis of asymmetric pull-to-center effect.

Analysis of the within subject variation of choices.

The dataset contains year- and month-wise historically compiled from the year 1960 to till date on the consumer price index, along with linking factor, of industrial workers, agricultural and rural labourers

Note: Data for the latest two months are provisional.

Participant characteristics by treatment.

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This dataset provides evidence supporting the hypothesis that institutional shorting, ETF outflows, whale wallet movements, and media sentiment drive Bitcoin’s volatility and price manipulation. Central to this dataset is the Decker Sentiment-Short Interest Model (DSSIM)—an original equation developed by Nicolin Decker to quantify the relationship between market sentiment and institutional short interest. By combining sentiment scores from Natural Language Processing (NLP) and short positioning data, DSSIM offers a flexible framework for analyzing volatility in Bitcoin and other assets.

The dataset spans January 2021 to December 2024, capturing daily market activity and key price events. Each file aligns with DSSIM’s variables, enabling replication and further analysis of the findings in the doctoral-level thesis The Economic Bomb: A Strategic Financial Warfare Tactic.

Key Components: BTC_Price_Data.csv: Daily BTC/USD closing prices from Binance, Coinbase, and Bitstamp, serving as the baseline for volatility and return calculations.

ETF_Holdings_Over_Time_Thesis.csv: Daily BTC holdings of ETFs (Grayscale, BlackRock, and Fidelity), illustrating cumulative outflows and their liquidity impact.

ETF_Outflows_Price_Impact_Data.csv: Correlates ETF outflows with BTC volatility, highlighting timing and magnitude.

Institutional_Shorting_Data.csv: Daily BTC short positions from Binance, BitMEX, Bybit, and OKX, serving as input for DSSIM’s short interest variable.

Whale_Wallet_Movements.csv: Tracks large BTC wallet movements, revealing sell-offs preceding price crashes and influencing DSSIM’s residual noise component.

Market_Liquidity_Data.csv: Daily BTC trading volume, order book depth, and liquidity ratios, validating DSSIM’s predictive capabilities.

Media_Sentiment_Scores.csv: Daily sentiment from Twitter, Reddit, Google News, and YouTube, forming DSSIM’s sentiment variable.

Monte_Carlo_Simulation_Results.csv: Simulates 1,000 BTC price paths to assess potential volatility under market stress.

VAR_Model_Data.csv: Analyzes ETF outflows’ delayed impact on BTC returns using vector autoregression.

Volatility_Clustering_Data.csv: Tracks daily BTC returns and 30-day rolling volatility, confirming persistent volatility after institutional actions.

GARCH_Model_Data.csv: Models BTC volatility using GARCH, validating volatility clustering during market shocks.

The dataset includes adjustments for major market events, such as the May 2021 Flash Crash, June 2022 Liquidation Crisis, and March 2023 Banking Crisis, ensuring realistic volatility patterns aligned with DSSIM’s modeling of sentiment shifts and institutional shorting.

Researchers can use DSSIM’s structure and data to explore similar dynamics in other cryptocurrencies, equities, commodities, and forex markets, advancing financial analysis and predictive modeling.

Access the full dataset: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pnwqBTMF_QSJoC5QcNAPSQpVtOST2n8c?usp=drive_link

Electricity prices for industries in the United States increased over the past few years, peaking in summer 2022. Industrial electricity prices amounted to **** U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour in May 2024, up from **** U.S. dollar cents per kilowatt-hour the previous month. The average retail electricity price for industrial consumers in the United States stood at **** U.S. dollar cents per kilowatt-hour in 2023.