Cold Winter Predicted for most of U.S., Canada
The 2022 Old Farmer’s Almanac’s editor says “This coming winter could well be one of the longest and coldest that we’ve seen in years.” Yes, it’s an almanac, not a weather bureau, but can you afford to ignore such a warning? Maybe I should get another cord of firewood…
Online Prices Rise for 15 Months Straight
Inflation is affecting more than groceries, cars and lumber. A new report shows that online prices have risen an unprecedented 15 months in a row, with apparel seeing the largest jumps (15.5 percent in one year). When online sales first started, they helped drive prices down. That is no longer the case.
61 Container Ships Backed Up in California
In the September 1 Prepper news Update, we included a story that there were 44 container ships waiting off the coast of California to get a berth and be unloaded. That number has now increased to 61 ships, setting another record. Limited warehouse space and trucking and rail constraints are being blamed for the backlog.
This article from Bloomberg Businessweek gives more details on what supply chain disruption looks like from the perspective of a large U.S. company. Here’s a quote:
The system underpinning globalization—production on one side of the planet, connected to consumers on the other by trucks, ships, planes, cranes, and forklifts—is too rigid to absorb today’s rolling tremors from COVID-19, or to recover quickly from the jolts to consumer demand or the labor force. It’s avoided a complete collapse only through a combination of human ingenuity, painfully long hours, and… strategy, mixed with a stroke of luck.
China Purge Continues
A week ago, I wrote about China’s crackdown on its newly minted tech billionaires. This in-depth article, whichoriginally appeared in the Los Angeles Times, highlights other elements of the CCP’s crackdown. Celebrities and movies stars are also suddenly becoming persona non grata if their cult-like status is seen as a threat by Chinese President Xi Jinping. According to the article, Xi’s common prosperity campaign “looks more like a top-down purification than a strategy for economic reform. Xi is intent on purging society of greed, corruption and moral failings he views as threats to socialism.”
Keep an eye on what happens in China and how they use social credit scores to monitor and control their citizens (or perhaps we should call them subjects). Socialists here are no doubt taking notes because they would love to control the U.S. population as well as the Chinese Communist Party does theirs.
In related news, China is also investigating and arresting senior executives and major Chinese banks.
