Posted on 03/31/2020 9:49:10 PM PDT by Freedom56v2
ll. What started as an early morning call with a friend to help get N95 masks to hospitals in desperate need turned into a roller coaster of contacts in a frenzied, pandemic-driven market. For the next 10 hours, I sat in on calls between brokers selling masks and potential buyers, watching the psychology of market pressures play out in real time as millions of masks changed hands in a matter of hours.
The buyers—from state government purchasing departments and hospital systems representing facilities throughout the Northeast, Midwest and California—expressed desperation for masks to protect their healthcare workers, but in the end not a single deal was completed with any of these groups, and millions of masks were earmarked to leave the country, purchased by foreign buyers.
In the interest of brevity, I’m going to summarize what I learned below and then jump into a bit more detail.
Millions of N95 masks have been available throughout the U.S., Canada and the UK during the pandemic, according to brokers trying to sell them. The high price point per mask, driven by extreme demand, has contributed to an overwhelmed reaction among potential buyers, especially in the U.S. Scrutiny surrounding these deals is high because of ongoing scams and claims of price-gouging, both of which are triggering emotionally charged reactions and fear of making deals. Millions of masks are being purchased by foreign buyers and are leaving the country, according to the brokers, while the domestic need remains alarmingly high.
My main contact in this frenzy was a medical supplies broker named Remington Schmidt who spends nearly every working hour of the day on phone calls trying to make deals between potential buyers and sellers with personal protective equipment (PPE) available to sell in the U.S. and abroad.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
While states and hospitals are unable to procure masks for desperate medical personnel, millions of masks are being bought and sold throughout the USA, and often to foreign buyers who are exporting the masks from within the USA likely to gouge us later.
IMHO, we need to block exports of precious n-95 masks...
From the article: But the masks in New Jersey, along with many million more, didn’t go to any domestic buyer. Instead, according to the broker, they were all purchased by foreign buyers.
“Most of the masks are leaving the country,” he told me.
That is not the case in countries that have cracked down on exports, he added, but as of now the U.S. is allowing many types of medical supplies to leave the country even as states and hospital systems are expressing desperate need for masks and other PPE.
While he is aware of brokers selling masks that will leave the country, Remington doesn’t participate in those deals. “This is a national crisis and we need these masks in the country,” he said.
Ah, nothing to bring out the crooks like capitalism.
I’m so proud to be an Armenian, where at least I eat for free! or something like that.
Did you read the article?
Yeah, I did.
What’s your point?
This is all I need to know.
By the end of the day, roughly 280 million masks from warehouses around the U.S. had been purchased by foreign buyers and were earmarked to leave the country, according to the broker — and that was in one day.
I agree.
The US is being taken.
Badly.
He doesn’t get it, you need to be blunt for him.
Wow. I had read that China had done this in Jan and Feb, leaving the shortage worldwide. (A keyword of ‘Greenland Corp/Austrailia’) helps begin the search process. Many articles about Austrailia, but they scourged medical supplies world wide.
bookmark.
In the short run, you get sky-high prices. Then supply rises to meet demand. These masks aren’t aren’t exactly high-tech items requiring years of R&D. Price ‘em high enough, and 3M and its brethren will expand their manufacturing capacity and run extra shifts. Nixonian price controls and rationing are not the way to go.
We aren’t at war with a virus. The virus is simply a weapon. We are at war with the Chinese.
It is for the time being.
America first.
3M has already expanded their capacity and are running extra shifts around the clock at all their facilities, not just the US ones. Their current bottleneck is their local suppliers in several countries - including the US.
I totally agree, Zhang Fei. What’s called “price gouging” is actually the market reacting to supply masks to the greatest need. As the price rises, it becomes economically feasible for other manufacturers to retool and start producing masks. Nixonian price controls will only guarantee shortages. Who do we really want setting prices? The free market or bureaucrats?
Psh...
Eh the article is very blunt for those who are critical thinkers.
Basically, I ask why the h*ll our government is allowing the most precious resources we need to fight this Pandemic to be taken out from under us?
Seems to me these PPE medical items are just as important to us as any national security item or weapon...
Ought to be a law...Oh yeah, there is one~The National Defense Authorization Act.
Under normal circumstances I would agree; however, we are in an extremely time sensitive situation...we need the masks and other PPE supplies...We don’t have time to allow for supply to catch up..
And I believe there are nefarious forces at play in this situation...videos of individuals deliberately hoarding supplies to send back to home countries as well as foreign governments doing the same.
We need PPE now to win the war...
If we were in a hot war with China, would we allow them to buy up all of our ammo?
Including to China
https://mobile.twitter.com/CloverChron/status/1245219960562962432
So we won’t have them
Beanies babies with a cough
Is that video about a Chinese person buying American masks, to send them to China?
Or just a woman getting prepared?
Seems to me, at the end, she is packing them all into an American made Jeep, which she rode to the store with her American husband, and their son.
No?
I completely agree — and economic history has scores of examples of that very scenario. If you want to ensure shortages, institute price controls — then you’ll also need rationing, in order to distribute the misery equally.
There are ethical issues — who “needs” or “deserves” this protection? However, the choice is between the unequal distribution of essential goods and the equal distribution of deprivation.
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