Free Republic

A Moody’s report revealed supply chain disruptions will continue to increase costs for consumers before the crisis will resolve itself – perhaps in 2023, CNN reported Wednesday. Moody’s Analytics warned the business community on Monday: Supply chain disruptions “will get worse before they get better. As the global economic recovery continues to gather steam, what is increasingly apparent is how it will be stymied by supply-chain disruptions that are now showing up at every corner. Moody’s also said the shortage of truck drivers could be the “weakest link” in the supply chain, causing ports to remain full, which delays ships...

The pandemic-induced shortage of emergency medical technicians and paramedics nationwide is so dire that ambulance service providers warn of sharp cuts to services and longer waits for 911 calls — even when it’s a matter of life or death. Companies have had to close, consolidate or come up with new strategies to answer calls, said American Ambulance Association President Shawn Baird, who added that there is simply not enough EMS personnel to cover calls in many parts of the country, especially during the pandemic. The loss of staff to pandemic-related burnout and low wages has created a vicious cycle, requiring...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said the U.S. is partly to blame for the gas shortages Europe is currently facing. Putin, during an interview with CNBC at the annual Russian Energy Week, said that while European countries bear part of the blame for the gas shortages, the U.S.’s decrease in supplies has been “the cause of panic.” “You see the problem does not consist in us, it consists in the European side, because, first, we know that the wind farms did not work during summer because of the weather, everyone knows that. Moreover, the Europeans did not pump enough...

During a portion of an interview broadcast on Tuesday’s edition of “CBS Evening News,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen cautioned that, due to the U.S. economy being in a state of recovery, “there may be isolated shortages of goods and services in the coming months.” Yellen stated that America has an “economy that’s recovering.” And “So, there may be isolated shortages of goods and services in the coming months. But there is an ample supply of goods, and I think there’s no reason for consumers to panic about the absence of goods that they’re going to want to acquire at Christmas.”

White House officials, scrambling to relieve global supply bottlenecks choking U.S. ports, highways and railways, warn that Americans may face higher prices and some empty shelves this Christmas season. The supply crisis, driven in part by the global COVID-19 pandemic, not only threatens to dampen U.S. spending at a critical time, it also poses a political risk for President Biden. The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll shows the economy continues to be the most important issue for Democrats and Republicans alike. The White House has been trying to tackle inflation-inducing supply bottlenecks of everything from meat to semiconductors, and formed a task...

Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic finally broke away from the fake narrative bandwagon created by his Fed peers, the complicit media and Wall Street sycophants, when during a virtual speech at the Peterson Institute of International Economics, he said that price surges caused by supply-chain disruptions or the reopening of the services sector are likely to last, i.e., they are not transitory, and seem to be broadening to more parts of the economy, i.e., getting worse. Or precisely what we have been saying since May. “It is becoming increasingly clear that the feature of this episode that has animated price...

President Joe Biden and his Departments of Commerce, Labor, and Transportation have failed to solve a supply chain crisis causing the backup of supplies at U.S. ports and cross country transportation as the left-wing media lays the blame solely on the coronavirus. A CNN report said consumers can’t expect to shop like they did in the “Before Times” and highlighted manufacturers warning of limited food supplies:If you hoped grocery stores this fall and winter would look like they did in the Before Times, with limitless options stretching out before you in the snack, drink, candy and frozen foods aisles, get...

The truth is starting to come out, and a lot of people aren’t going to like it. When the supply chain problems and the shortages began, government officials repeatedly assured us that they would just be temporary, and most of us believed them. But now it has become clear that they aren’t going to be temporary at all. In fact, during a recent interview with Bloomberg, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg admitted that some of the supply chain problems that we are currently facing could last for “years and years”. I don’t know about you, but to me “years and...

Higher temperatures in the Bering Sea, a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean, could be responsible for one of the lowest levels set in snow crab harvest in more than four decades, according to the Seattle Times. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has set the 2021-22 catch limit of snow crab to 5.6 million pounds –down 88% from last season. Scientists who study snow crabs attempt to understand what happened to the crabs, native to shelf depths in the North Pacific Ocean. They discovered that sea bottom warmed, pushing the crabs farther to the northwest and deeper...

We have a complex problem that already has a solution available. The Biden-Harris regime knows the problem we’re having with our supply chain that is causing major shortages. They will only get worse unless it’s fixed immediately. But other than rhetoric and roundtables, they’re doing nothing about it. Why? Yes, it’s complex, but the solutions are simple. We need more bodies. We need people working on ports, in warehouses, and behind the wheels of trucks to get the supplies out to the stores so people can buy them. It’s as easy as doing what America has always done, just more...

If you hoped grocery stores this fall and winter would look like they did in the Before Times, with limitless options stretching out before you in the snack, drink, candy and frozen foods aisles, get ready for some disappointing news. Many of the country's biggest food makers are telling grocers that they will have limited quantities of a number of their products, including items such as Rice Krispies Treats, Sour Patch Kids, some Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavors, McCormick gourmet spices and Marie Callender's pot pies because of labor, commodity and transportation constraints throttling supply chains, according to emails...

For a decade after the financial crisis the world economy’s problem was a lack of spending. Worried households paid down their debts, governments imposed austerity and wary firms held back investment, especially in physical capacity, while hiring from a seemingly infinite pool of workers. Now spending has come roaring back, as governments have stimulated the economy and consumers let rip. The surge in demand is so powerful that supply is struggling to keep up. Lorry drivers are getting signing bonuses, an armada of container ships is anchored off California waiting for ports to clear and energy prices are spiralling upwards....

Fertilizer prices have risen to a record high in North America, threatening to boost food inflation even higher. Nitrogen products are increasing due to the cost of natural gas, which is used in the manufacturing process. The Green Markets North America Fertilizer Price Index soared to a record high last week of $996.32 per short ton. The fertilizer market has been roiled by hurricanes, plant shutdowns, sanctions, and shortages of natural gas in Europe and China, pushing nutrient prices sky-high, which will raise the cost of production for global farmers. Here are global fertilizer prices zooming higher:Fertilizers play an essential...

Torrential rain that lasted for almost five days straight has forced China’s coal hub to close 60 coal mines, piling further pressure on the country already grappling with a power crunch. The downpower that struck 11 cities in northern China’s Shanxi Province has triggered flooding and landslides, destroying railway lines and bridges, and causing fatalities. The provincial weather agency said on Oct. 10 that showers will continue the next 10 days. Heavy rain beginning on Oct. 2 has suspended 60 coal mines, 372 other mines, 14 hazardous-chemical enterprises, and over 1,000 constructing projects, the Shanxi government said in a notice...

Inflation is about to get significantly worse, radio show host and retail grocer John Catsimatidis warned on Sunday on his own “The Cats Roundtable” radio show on WABC 770 AM. As a grocer, Catsimatidis said that he is aware not only about the facts concerning influences on the economy, but that he has “the pulse of the situation” from what is going on in his stores. Catsimatidis cautioned that “there are price increases coming through from food manufacturers that are not public yet that could rock somebody’s socks.” He gave two examples of large retailers about ready to push up...

When it comes to how we see and prepare for SHTF, thinking in terms of real and probable rather than fictional and possible can make a big difference. Even though SHTF has many forms and levels and is in essence complex, random, diverse and unsystematic, some patterns and principles are common to the way things unfold when it hits the fan. With Toby and Selco’s Seven Pillars of Urban Preparedness as inspiration, I came up with a different list of the 15 dynamics and realities of collapses. 1 SHTF is nuanced and happens in stagesThinking about SHTF as an ON/OFF,...

Despite recent hedge fund disasters and almost every economic indicator pointing to a potential stock crash, Biden’s administration has completely ignored a potential equities bubble.Since March 2020, $5.9 trillion in so-called relief spending authorized by Congress, as well as $3.3 trillion in quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve, has been pumped into the U.S. economy. America’s pandemic response resulted in 22 million jobs lost in a matter of months, and we still have 10 million fewer jobs than before March of last year. The fiscal and economic repercussions of going from stronger than expected job and wage growth in January...

The energy crisis in Europe exposed the complexity of a transition to green energy: it is not happening overnight, and it cannot be done successfully with the old tricks. Energy systems, markets, and grids globally need fundamental changes to legislation, regulation, and oversight in order to accommodate 100-percent zero-emission sources. And even in that case, power systems need flexibility and backups in order to avert similar crises down the road as many parts of the world commit to net-zero emissions by 2050 or 2060. The current crisis in the UK is a cautionary tale about how not to rush to...

The Story is the Story Today is a US payrolls Friday. I have covered 277 of these releases. A handful were of any lasting interest, signalling something the market didn’t already know beforehand, and a few dozen more were higher/lower enough to get a few days of trading from. The expectation is 500K, which I remind everyone is way, waaay lower than the implied “1 million a month” that was promised at the start of the year. And that is all I feel I need to add, given there will be 279 to follow, and so on (and on). Meanwhile,...

Industry leaders called for 'urgent action' after the National Grid warned electricity supplies would be 'tight'.. ... Latest sign of a grim winter outlook for UK with economy clobbered by rising inflation and supply chain issues.. The supply of electricity to Britain this winter will be 'tight' and there is a greater risk of blackouts, the National Grid warned today - as soaring energy prices leave families facing sky- high bills. ... Gas is in high demand due to the reopening of the global economy, colder temperatures, and reduced wind and solar output due to unfavourable conditions. ... Omni Energy...