The Guardian (February 5)
“It is finally dawning on more and more people that leaving the EU was a colossal mistake.” Brexit has led to “supply chain disruptions, staffing shortages, higher food prices and extra red tape for business. Public opinion is shifting towards remorse. Instead of hurtling away from the EU into the swaggering prosperity promised by the Leave campaign, Britain is instead receding into a dark timeline of recession, strikes, and political instability. Last week, it was forecast that Britain will be the only G7 economy to shrink in 2023.”
Tags: Brexit, Disruptions, EU, Food prices, G7 economy, Mistake, Political instability, Public opinion, Recession, Red tape, Remorse, Shortages, Shrink, Staffing, Strikes, Supply chain
BBC (September 12)
China “is the world’s last major economy attempting to entirely stamp out Covid outbreaks, claiming this is necessary to prevent wider surges of the virus which could overwhelm hospitals.” At present, “tens of millions of people in at least 30 regions have been ordered to stay at home under partial or full lockdowns,” with some of the impacted residents “complaining of shortages of food and essential items.”
Tags: China, Complaining, Covid outbreaks, Food, Home, Hospitals, Last, Lockdowns, Major economy, Overwhelm, Prevent, Residents, Shortages, Stamp out, Surges, Virus
Wall Street Journal (August 26)
“Energy common sense is in short supply these days, so all the more reason to cheer Japan for rethinking its flight from nuclear power.” Germany is currently debating whether to keep “its three remaining reactors online. Maybe Japan’s decision will prove compelling. “This should be an easy call as natural gas shortages loom this winter. Advanced economies need reliable base load power, and at least Tokyo understands this.”
Tags: Advanced economies, Base load power, Common sense, Debating, Germany, Japan, Natural gas, Nuclear power, Reliable, Rethinking, Short supply, Shortages, Tokyo, Winter
Market Watch (June 27)
“Stock futures are inching higher at the start of the week as investors seemingly cling to newfound optimism that a bond rout is ending, and the Fed’s rate-hike plans will get pruned due to a global slowdown.” There are, of course, no shortage of issues like surging inflation, but Brynne Kelly suspects “the next black swan for markets could be failing power grids and electricity shortages.” These could prove “catastrophic” as we move into the “height of the summer cooling season amid rising temperatures.”
Tags: Black swan, Bond rout, Catastrophic, Electricity, Fed, Inflation, Investors, Kelly, Markets, Optimism, Power grids, Rate hike, Shortages, Slowdown, Stock futures, Summer
BloombergQuint (October 19)
Hoarding and food shortages are back, even though “there’s plenty of food. There just isn’t always enough processing and transportation capacity to meet rising demand as the economy revs up. More than a year and a half after the coronavirus pandemic upended daily life, the supply of basic goods at U.S. grocery stores and restaurants is once again falling victim to intermittent shortages and delays.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Daily life, Demand, Economy, Food, Hoarding, Pandemic, Processing, Shortages, Stores, Transportation, U.S., Upended
LA Times (October 14)
President Biden is doing what he can to get the supply chain rolling as he pressures ports to open 24/7. “One of the biggest economic threats is that supply chain bottlenecks and various shortages are sparking higher inflation.” The consumer price index showed year-0n-year inflation jumped 5.4%, “the highest rate in more than a decade.”
Tags: 24/7, Biden, Bottlenecks, CPI, Economic threats, Highest, Inflation, Ports, Shortages, Supply chain
Reuters (September 13)
“Shortages of metals, plastics, wood and even liquor bottles are now the norm.” As these “hobble” the U.S. economy, “new challenges continue to arise, including hurricane disruptions to U.S. oil refineries.” Supply lines present additional challenges. “With so many manufacturers rushing to build supplies at the same time, the containers, ships, and trucks needed to move the goods often aren’t available, and have soared in cos…. That has disrupted some of the mechanisms that normally help keep supplies, and prices, in check.”
Tags: Basic materials, Bottles, Containers, Disruptions, Economy, Hobble, Hurricane, Liquor, Manufacturers, Metals, Oil refineries, Plastics, Ships, Shortages, Supply lines, Trucks, U.S., Wood
Tampa Bay Times (September 7)
“For weeks, the virus preyed on America’s illusion of a defanged Covid. Most people returned to a semblance of their former lives.” Then, harsh reality set in. “The fast-spreading Delta variant has flooded hospitals across the South. It’s killed more people in Florida and Louisiana than the darkest days of the pandemic winter, and left so many COVID-19 patients gasping for breath that some places face shortages of medical oxygen.”
Tags: COVID-19, Defanged, Delta, Fast-spreading, Florida, Gasping, Hospitals, Illusion, Louisiana, Oxygen, Pandemic, Patients, Reality, Shortages, Virus
South China Morning Post (February 5)
“Thousands of Hongkongers camped out overnight in the cold after a company said it would release 6,000 boxes of surgical masks for sale during citywide shortages caused by the coronavirus outbreak.” After the crowd surged to 10,000 people, the company decided “to sell its entire stock of 11,000 boxes, each containing 50 masks.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Hong Kong, Shortages, Surgical masks
Financial Times (February 19)
“The best news on Japan’s economy is coming from the jobs market, where there are signs of labour shortages, and organic pressure for higher wages.” The real test of “whether Abenomics is working” will come from the annual “shunto” labour talks. “If wage growth is not higher than last year it will be a worrying sign.”