profiteer = 'make any kind of profit'

[Charles C Doyle]

Somewhat in that vein, a column in this morning's newspaper, by Diane Katz, defends Bank of America's newly announced debit card fees on the grounds that the bank's ginormous profits have been (slightly) reduced by federal regulations recently in effect.  So the bank has to offset the "anticipated shortfall."  (And the new fees are the fault of the federal regulations.)

--Charlie

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Joel S. Berson [Berson at ATT.NET]
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2011 11:

I don't quite understand how an increase in costs of materials, when
passed on, must result in an increase in profits.  (An increase in
gross income, OK.)  So one could assert that they were profiteering
by adding something on beyond their increase in costs.

Joel

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