Washington Post (October 2)
“The commercial pipeline that each year brings $1 trillion worth of toys, clothing, electronics and furniture from Asia to the United States is clogged and no one knows how to unclog it.” The median cost of container shipping *from China to the West Coast of the United States hit a record $20,586, almost twice what it cost in July, which was twice what it cost in January.” Supply chain problems are now “expected to last through 2022.”
Tags: 2022, Asia, China, Clogged, Clothing, Commercial, Container, Cost, Electronics, Furniture, Pipeline, Record, Shipping, Supply chain, Toys, U.S., West Coast
Bloomberg (April 3)
“The cost of the coronavirus pandemic could be as high as $4.1 trillion, or almost 5% of global gross domestic product, depending on the disease’s spread through Europe, the U.S. and other major economies,” according to the Asian Development Bank.
Washington Post (March 6)
“As the saying goes, you don’t miss the water until the well runs dry: This deeply aberrant presidency threatens to cost the nation much more than even some of President Trump’s harshest critics may realize…. It’s easy to lose the habits and values of democracy, but incredibly hard to get them back. Perhaps most difficult is to recover lost faith in the rule of law.”
Tags: Aberrant, Cost, Critics, Democracy, Habits, Lost faith, Presidency, Recover, Rule of law, Trump, Values
Fortune (February Issue)
The cost of “suffocating air pollution” is higher than imagined. The World Bank had estimated in 2016 that air pollution resulted in health costs of $5 trillion a year, but other losses could especially hit developing countries. “High pollution levels are capable of causing net out-migration of 5%—a potentially devastating economic blow, especially because those most likely to leave are wealthy and educated.”
Tags: Air pollution, Cost, Devastating, Educated, Health, Migration, Suffocating, Wealthy, World Bank
The Economist (February 3)
University degrees are becoming more widespread. In South Korea, for example, 70% “of pupils who graduate from the country’s secondary schools now go straight to university… up from 37% in 2000.” The cost of a degree is also rising and evidence suggests ROI is falling. Still, “most young people will want a degree. It may not boost their earnings as much as they had hoped, but without one, they will probably fare even worse,” as a degree has also become the entry level threshold for many positions.
Tags: Cost, Degrees, Earnings, Entry level, ROI, South Korea, Threshold, University, Widespread
Bloomberg (June 20)
“Brexit stresses are seeping into virtually every corner of the global foreign-exchange market. Of 16 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg, all but three have seen a jump in the cost to hedge against big declines.” The Japanese yen Brazilian real and Swiss frank are the three exceptions.
Tags: Brazil, Brexit, Cost, Currencies, Declines, Forex, Hedge, Japan, Markets, Real, Switzerland, Yen
Financial Times (June 14)
“The slow pace of the shift away from fossil fuels is evidence of their compelling advantages in terms of cost and convenience. Tackling the threat of catastrophic climate change cannot rely on wind and solar power alone but requires multiple changes, including a shift within fossil fuels away from coal towards gas.”
Tags: Advantages, Climate change, Coal, Convenience, Cost, Fossil fuels, Gas, Shift, Solar, Wind power
USA Today (November 9)
Instead of urgent action to remove defective air bags from vehicles, “air bag maker Takata and its biggest customer, Honda, conducted glacial, piecemeal recalls that have left drivers in jeopardy.” Why the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) hasn’t done more remains a mystery, though it’s clear why the other parties have dallied. “The problem might pose an existential threat” for Takata. “And for Honda, finding and replacing the faulty air bags—installed in many models for many years—imposes a massive cost.”
The Economist (September 20)
“The cost of halting Ebola’s spread is also rising exponentially. In August the World Health Organisation estimated that it would take nine months and cost $490m to contain Ebola. Now it reckons the cost has risen to over $1 billion. The longer the world prevaricates, the harder and costlier it will be to contain this outbreak.”
Tags: August, Containment, Cost, Ebola, Exponentially, Outbreak, Spread, WHO
The Economist (July 26)
“ONE trillion dollars. That may be the cost to Russian investors of Vladimir Putin’s rule…. The calculation stems from the fact that investors regard Russian assets with suspicion. As a result, Russian stocks trade on a huge discount to much of the rest of the world, with an average price-earnings ratio (p/e) of just 5.2. At present, the Russian market has a total value of $735 billion. If it traded on the same p/e as the average emerging market (12.5), it would be worth around $1.77 trillion.”
Tags: Assets, Cost, Discount, Emerging market, Investors, Market, P/E, Putin, Russia, Suspicion, Trillion
