Oh my...now the truth comes to light.

Just heard that a California law, known as AB5...which eliminates the Independent Contractor and forces folks into being employees, and Truck Drivers are leaving California because they cant make money being an Independent Contractor...which supplies wont be trucked across the Nation ...that is the real reason for the shortages across this Country....not because the docks cant get the containers off the ships.

AND... this law that Cali-fucking-fornia passed back in '19, the hack fuck leftists are now trying to stick a similar languaged law into law across the entire Country...''unionized employees''...no more small business.

I knew there was a reason for all this....it was not CoVid related.

 

The issue of the independent contractor is simple;
Government agencies want their tax dollars, as in Unemployment, Workers Comp, Social Security and Medicare.
Independent contractors are not very good at paying these taxes, especially unemployment, because in most cases they can't collect unemployment.
Employers are an easy target, so the government looks for 1099 payments and payments to individuals when they audit companies. Then they declare that all those payments are in fact to employees, not independent contractors, and leave it to the company to prove otherwise.

In one notable case, the independent contractor insisted they be treated as an independent and even got a business license. Along came the government audit and the government claimed the fellow was in fact an employee, despite the business license, (which usually puts end to the discussion). The fellow claimed he never was an independent, and swore under oath he was not aware he was being treated as anything other than an employee. The issue was some $19,000 in payroll taxes. Even presenting e Mails from the fellow to the company refuting most of his testimony failed to convince the state. Shooter is convinced the state knew they'd never see a dime out of the fellow but the company would pay. The case had to go all the way to the 9th circus to get a proper ruling.

 

Supply glut is worsening at the Port of Los Angeles despite Joe Biden’s attempts to ensure 24/7 operations at the port. According to new reports, around 169 cargo ships are anchored off the coast of Los Angeles and are trying to unload. This is up from 100 ships two weeks ago.

This comes as the Port of Los Angeles decided to impose fines on carriers who take too long to offload amid labor shortages and a lack of trucks. Business owners say large corporations are benefiting from this bottleneck while small distributors are being pushed out of business.

Meanwhile, economists are blaming labor shortages on the Biden administration and California Democrats.

“The major retailers like Amazon, Target — they’re doing their own shipping so they can get the new product in,” explained Los Angeles business owner Lou Calderon. “And like me, I’m basically depending on my wholesaler to get it and they are smaller wholesalers so they can’t get it. So we don’t have the resources to compete with those big companies.”

In the meantime, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) invited ships to offload in his state while touting quick and smooth operations in Tampa as well as other ports.
==================================================================================================

Just more of the same-'ole same-'ole ..the federal fucking government getting involved and has made it worse.

 

It takes a despicable to truly fuck something up.
They are the experts.
The specialists.
The rest of us are just amateur's when it comes to fucking things up.

 

Bidenflation: Labor Costs Soar Even While Real Worker Pay Crashes




U.S. businesses paid sharply higher labor costs in the third quarter to produce their goods and services—even though hourly compensation for workers fell after adjusting for inflation.

So-called unit-labor costs soared 8.3 percent in the period from July through September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday.


These costs indicate how much a business spends to produce one unit of output.

At the same time, consumer prices have been rising faster than hourly compensation, a measure that includes wages, salaries, benefits, employer contributions to benefit plans, and taxes. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said that hourly compensation rose at a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 2.9 percent in the quarter, near its average in the decade before the pandemic. But after adjusting for inflation, hourly compensation fell at an annual rate of 3.5 percent.

The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index rose 5.3 percent in the third quarter.

The government also said on Thursday that labor productivity, a measure of how long it takes to produce of unit of output, fell by the most since 1981.

 

U.S. businesses are dealing with growing inflationary pressures with rising input costs, material shortages, and unresolved supply issues being key drivers.

Among manufacturers, 86.4 percent stated their primary current business challenge was an increase in raw material prices, according to the third quarter outlook survey by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).

One of the roots of the rise in prices stems from energy fluctuations.

“Energy costs going up will affect everything,” Dan Eberhart, an energy consultant and CEO of Canary, a Denver-based oilfield services company, told The Epoch Times.

With input costs on the rise and instability in the air, many companies are unable to hold their quotes, making it difficult for manufacturers to plan and set forecasts. For instance, in the past, a supplier may have provided a quote of $80,000 for nuts and bolts, with the offer valid for 90 days. With so much uncertainty, there is a trend to set the quote based on the current price and not hold it. In other words, the quote is good until the end of the phone call, or the end of the day.

 

On a better note, we have Red States doing everything they can possibly do to get more supplies to the consumers.

A month after Texas poached Tesla Inc.’s headquarters from California, it’s now trying to attract freight carriers dealing with near-record backlogs at the U.S.’s largest ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott launched the ‘Escape California’ Twitter campaign Monday with a 30-second video telling carriers that in less than two weeks, they can re-route cargo to “one of the 24/7 functioning Texas cargo ports.”

Last month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also pitched the state’s 15 seaports to help alleviate bottlenecks, saying local ports “are used to operating around the clock” during a visit to the state’s busiest Port of Jacksonville.

 

When asked by CNN about whether consumers would pay more, Granholm said yes.

“Yes,” said the former Michigan governor from the Democratic Party. “This has to happen. This year it will be more expensive than last year. We are in a somewhat advantageous position, of course, compared to Europe, because their suppression of natural gas is significant. They will pay five times more. “

Granholm added that the United States has “the same problem” with fuel transportation and supply, before trying to pin the blame on oil and gas companies. At the same time, Granholm pushed through the Biden administration’s $ 1 trillion infrastructure bill, which was recently passed by the House of Representatives, and a larger social spending package.

Granholm sparked controversy last week after she laughed during an interview with Bloomberg News about the increase in US domestic oil production.

“As you know, of course, oil is a global market. Cartel controlled. This cartel is called OPEC and yesterday they made a decision that they are not going to expand beyond what they already planned, ”she said.


Since taking office in January, President Joe Biden has signed executive orders to end construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which will carry oil from Alberta, Canada, from oil fields to the United States. The administration also froze some new drilling sites, prompting a recent lawsuit by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Administration (AIDEA) against the mandate.

Meanwhile, in October, Biden asked OPEC + – the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies – to pump more oil to lower high energy prices. However, the Saudi-led alliance rejected Biden’s request on Nov. 4, opting to stick with its cautious monthly increase plan instead.

 

US inflation expectations surge to another record high, New York Fed survey shows
Americans expect inflation to be up 5.4% a year from now


Americans' inflation fears continued to accelerate in October, climbing for the 12th consecutive month in a row to another record high, according to a key Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey published Monday.


The median expectation is that the inflation rate will be up 5.4% one year from now, the highest level for the gauge since its launch in June 2013, according to the New York Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Expectations. Inflation expectations over the next three years remained unchanged at a median of 4.2%, a series high.

 

Household income dropped almost 4%.
We are certainly on biden/harris's track.

 

Whether they voted against Trump, or for Biden...the questionable 80 million got bamboozled.

 

Is so.
The question now is, will despicables try to fix this in 2024, or will they try to continue down the same path?

 

No Thanks! Turkey Prices Up 41%, Home Heating Oil Up 115%, Food Prices Up 10.5%




Thanksgiving 2021 is shaping up to be the most expensive in history.

Prices of processed turkeys are up 40.7 percent compared with a year ago, data from the Department of Labor’s Producer Price Index showed Tuesday. That’s even after falling a seasonally adjusted one percent in October.


It may be hard to even find turkeys in some parts of the country this year. The Wall Street Journal reported that turkeys were 60 percent out of stock. Cranberries, yams, and sweet potatoes are also low in stock.
Grain prices are 40.8 percent higher than a year ago, driving up the prices of our largely grain-fed turkey crop. Beef and veal prices are up 41.5 percent compared with a year ago. Overall, food prices are running 10.5 percent higher than a year ago.

Getting to the family Thanksgiving will be costlier with gasoline prices are up close to 90 percent, according to the Producer Price Index. Airfares, fortunately for passengers, are near where they were a year ago and still well below pre-pandemic levels.

Home heating oil is up 114.8 percent. Residential natural gas prices are up 28.7 percent. Residential electricity prices are up 5.6 percent.

Overall, the Producer Price Index—which measures prices from the point of view of sellers—is up 8.6 percent compared with a year ago, tying the record high set last month.

 

The Biden administration has been scrambling to defend product shortages while Americans have continued to grow frustrated.

During an interview Tuesday, Joe Biden’s top economic adviser, Brian Deese, claimed the supply chain crisis just means “Americans are out there and able to buy goods again.” His remarks comes as grocery stores across the country run low on popular items or are missing them entirely. However, Deese was quick to dismiss concerns.

“A lot of these supply chain challenges are actually reflections of the fact that we are moving more goods, more products through the American economy now than at any time in history,” he stated. “Significantly higher than before the pandemic. That’s a good thing.”
(total leftist talking points bullshit)
According to reports, shortages are expected to continue and the cost of the average Thanksgiving meal will be the highest it’s ever been. Meanwhile, Joe Biden attempted to ease ports and supply chains as many blame the administration for the failing economy.

Also on Tuesday, the White House unveiled a Biden-Harris Action Plan (hack fuck leftists support/funding/paybacks/handouts for Unions....again)that seeks to make amends regarding port congestion that has caused rising prices and a lack of items on store shelves. The plan would allegedly pay for potential upgrades to U.S. ports within 90-days while redirecting funds to address the ongoing problem.

While critics blame Biden’s “handouts” as one of the leading causes of supply chain backup, the administration is instead blaming “outdated infrastructure and the COVID-19 pandemic” for the issue.

 

The number of container ships stuck off the coast of Southern California reached new records on Tuesday.

According to data from the Marine Exchange, a total of 111 container ships are bobbing at sea around the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, waiting to dock and unload. That breaks the previous record of 108 vessels reported on October 21.

The two ports remain clogged despite efforts to speed up the processing of containers amid a surge in consumer demand for goods. The White House announced a shift to an around-the-clock schedule in October and a new looming threat of fines for leaving containers on the docks for several days.

A global supply chain crisis caused by a fall in shipping demand during the early days of the pandemic in 2020 followed by a surge at the end of that year has led to delays and blockages across the world.

The size of the logjam is unprecedented. Before the pandemic, the ports hadn't seen a backlog greater than 17 ships, Kip Louttit, head of the Marine Exchange, previously told Insider. In the past few months, it's common to find around 100-plus ships lingering around these ports waiting to berth.

Last month, the two ports said they would begin fining shipping companies $100 a day for every container left on the docks. The ports started collecting data at the start of November and will begin charging the companies on November 15.

Shipping firms have three days to move containers if their next step is by rail, or nine days if the next step is by truck.

Experts say these fees will do little to resolve the port jams.

"The issue isn't about a lack of desire to move boxes, but a lack of physical space," Corey Bertsch, VP Solutions Consulting at Slync.io, a global logistics company, told Insider's Grace Kay.

Those fines will "simply get passed onto beneficial cargo owners who will begrudgingly accept that their rates have gone up," he added. "These containers would move if they could, but it's a combination of warehouses, truck, and labor issues."

According to data reported by trade publication American Shipper, at the start of this month, there were nearly 60,000 containers on these ports that had been there for more than nine days and would, therefore, be eligible for fines.

 

China's factory gate inflation hit a 26-year high in October as coal prices soared amid a power crunch in the country's industrial heartland, further squeezing profit margins for producers and heightening stagflation concerns.

The producer price index (PPI) climbed 13.5% from a year earlier, faster than the 10.7% rise in September, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement.

It matched a pace not seen since July 1995 and was faster than the 12.4% forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll.

Consumer price rises also quickened, although at a slower pace than factory gate prices. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.5% in October year-on-year, compared with September's 0.7% rise.

The mounting price pressures complicate deliberations for the People's Bank of China, which may now be wary of injecting monetary stimulus too quickly amid concerns about fanning inflation, even as growth in the world's second-largest economy slows.

"We are concerned about the pass-through from producer prices to consumer prices," said Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, in a note.

Consumer prices will likely speed up in coming months as firms faced depleted inventories and are forced to pass higher costs onto customers, he added.

"The risk of stagflation continues to rise."

Slowing economic growth and soaring factory inflation have fuelled concerns over stagflation, which could mean China has to move cautiously on loosening monetary policy.
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-factory-gate-inflation-hits-26-year-high-2021-11-10/

 

Farmers are feeling the sting of skyrocketing fertilizer prices as they make fall applications, and those prices may not cool anytime soon.

Higher grain prices are just a part of the cause; the rest is a rare combination of supply chain issues that have tightened supplies.

Josh Linville, director of fertilizer for Stone X Financial Inc. based in Kansas City, Missouri, said fertilizer prices were higher in 2008, but the 2021 issue is an unprecedented global shortage.

“This is vastly different,” he said. “Because it doesn’t matter what you’re willing to pay, you can’t get the product.”

The retail price tag for products like urea, anhydrous ammonia, potash and UAN28 (urea ammonium nitrate) are more than double the price of a year ago.

“Ammonia up again probably $300 a ton in cost from where it was a year ago," said Bob Larson, marketing manager with Nutrien Ag Solutions. "In season, this late stuff that you bought probably, say, upwards of even $500 to $600 on these last tons they were buying in the marketplace today.”

The DTN National Fertilizer Index shows average retail prices nationally as of Nov. 4 were at $982 per ton for anhydrous versus $423 the last week in October 2020. The retail price of urea was $751 per ton compared to $358 last year.

On a wholesale basis, some of the same products have doubled, tripled, sometimes quadrupled, according to Linville. Those fertilizer prices are quoted in the landed New Orleans, Louisiana, market, the main entry point for fertilizer. He said a year ago, urea barges were $180 per ton in the Gulf of Mexico.

“As of this morning, a barge traded for February at $735 per ton," he said on Oct. 29. "That’s quadrupled.”

He said liquid urea-ammonium nitrate (UAN) fertilizer was running at $120 per ton a year ago. As of Nov. 3, it was $552 per ton, a new record high.

 

Retailers lose love for Asia: Snarled supply chains force manufacturing exodus to Balkans, LatAm

Major clothing and shoe companies are moving production to countries closer to their U.S. and European stores, smarting from a resurgence in cases of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in Vietnam and China that slowed or shut down production for several weeks earlier this year. The disclosures come amid a massive shipping logjam that is driving up costs and forcing companies to rethink their globe-spanning supply chains and low-cost manufacturing hubs in Asia..The latest example is Spanish fashion retailer Mango, which told Reuters on Friday it has"accelerated" its process of increasing local production in countries such as Turkey, Morocco and Portugal. In 2019, the company largely sourced its products from China and Vietnam. Mango told Reuters that it would"considerably" expand the number of units manufactured locally in Europe in 2022.

Major clothing and shoe companies are moving production to countries closer to their U.S. and European stores, smarting from a resurgence in cases of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in Vietnam and China that slowed or shut down production for several weeks earlier this year.

Similarly, U.S. shoe retailer Steve Madden on Wednesday said it had pulled back production in Vietnam and had shifted 50per cent of its footwear production to Brazil and Mexico from China, while Rubber clogs maker Crocs said last month it was moving production to countries including Indonesia and Bosnia. headtopics.com

Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, the Czech Republic, Morocco and Turkey were some of the countries drawing new interest from clothing and shoe producers, though China continues to produce a large share of the apparel for U.S. and European clothing chains."We are seeing a lot of growth in freight and trucking activity in the former Soviet Republics ... a big rise in Hungary and Romania," said Barry Conlon, chief executive of Overhaul, a supply chain risk management firm.

In Turkey, apparel exports are expected to reach US$20 billion this year, an all-time high, driven by a spike in orders from the European Union, Turkey’s Union of Chambers Clothing and Garment Council data showed. In 2020, exports totaled US$17 billion.
https://headtopics.com/sg/retailers...anufacturing-exodus-to-balkans-latam-22455606

 

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