TL;DR

Amazon surpassing Walmart in revenue isn’t a win; it’s a warning. This ‘milestone’ masks predatory practices, mirroring historical market crashes.

Story

Amazon edging out Walmart in quarterly revenue isn’t a triumph of innovation—it’s a symptom of a broken system. Let’s unpack why this ‘milestone’ is less celebratory and more cautionary tale.

The mechanics are simple: Amazon’s predatory pricing and monopolistic grip on online retail strangled competition, leaving consumers with fewer choices. This isn’t ‘disruption,’ it’s textbook predatory pricing.

‣ Predatory Pricing: When a dominant player undercuts prices to eliminate competitors, then hikes them up once the market is cornered.

Remember the 2008 housing crash? Subprime loans promised the impossible, masked risk with complexity, and imploded spectacularly. Amazon’s meteoric rise mirrors this—unsustainable growth fueled by debt and market dominance. The human impact? Small businesses crushed, jobs lost, and consumers locked into a system rigged against them.

This isn’t just about retail. UnitedHealth’s entry into the ‘$100 billion club’ alongside tech giants is a red flag. Healthcare, like retail, is becoming increasingly monopolized, driving up costs and limiting access.

Amazon’s reliance on AWS, its cloud computing arm, further complicates the picture. This reminds us of Enron, where opaque accounting hid a crumbling core. Is Amazon’s retail success a facade masking deeper vulnerabilities?

‣ AWS: Amazon Web Services, a cloud computing platform providing servers, storage, etc.

This isn’t a victory for consumers. It’s a stark reminder that unchecked growth, disguised as innovation, can lead to systemic instability.

Advice

Don’t be seduced by shiny ‘disruptions.’ Examine the mechanics, the human cost, and ask: Is this sustainable? History says probably not.

Source

https://www.reddit.com/r/stocks/comments/1ij5nja/amazon_set_to_pass_walmart_in_revenue_for_first/