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Thanks everyone. This thread compelled me to go buy new shoes for the wifey's tactical Prius. I was going to wait until Spring. This thread made me say "yikes" and off to the tire store I went. Tactical Prius has new shoes :) now.
 
The ancient Chinese saying "May you live in interesting times" is considered both a blessing and a curse. "Interesting times" are far more dangerous. But they also offer many more opportunities for drastic individual and social change of all sorts including positive.

Example: When the black death caused a massive drop in population in Medieval Britain, on the one hand a third or more of humans died, with all the suffering and disruption that involves. On the other hand, it caused the end of serfdom. Nobleman were so desperate for labor that they would hire runaway serfs and pay them seriously more and treat them seriously better than they did before black death. And various laws were made to give more rights and protectiins to labborers. Before the population drop, nobody hired a runaway serf. His choice was to become an outlaw or die. There was a shift in the balance of power.
 
They're certainly finding many new ways to turn America into a third-world country
As long as they get the ball rolling by the time they leave they can blame someone else. Every freebie is a tax. California is that house with a boat, new car and bankrupt.

Last I heard, there are still homeless, vets killing themselves, ect, and new spending bills not fixing any of it. By next month 20% across the US may be unemployed to boot.

By the way, I have bay area family looking at their paid for merchandise in the harbor not being unloaded. I'm not sure what the deal is there.
 
As long as they get the ball rolling by the time they leave they can blame someone else. Every freebie is a tax. California is that house with a boat, new car and bankrupt.

Last I heard, there are still homeless, vets killing themselves, ect, and new spending bills not fixing any of it. By next month 20% across the US may be unemployed to boot.

By the way, I have bay area family looking at their paid for merchandise in the harbor not being unloaded. I'm not sure what the deal is there.
"Covid social distancing" and longshore slow-walking things. Something like 65 ships backlogged at Long Beach alone... a record, and only growing. Even once you get a slip those ships don't just unload overnight...
 
Lots of trucks can't enter California because of their pollution laws. It affects even reefer units. I bought a Perkins engine 15 years ago that was surplus because it couldn't be used in California any more.

This creates an artificial shortage of trucking.
 
Costco I go to ran outta paper towels & TP last month
Longshoreman are going to be starting contract negotiations next year and UPS employees in late 2022. I am thinking supply chain issues are going to last awhile.



 
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Every 24hrs?? That's insane!!
China considered it strategic to have a huge steel industry and has been dumping steel in US at below cost, ruining our steel industry. We would have lost WWII if we had no steel industry then. American manufacturers were happy to have cheap steel, but that turns us into dependency on China for ability to manufacture everything including military war equipment.

Trump put major tariffs on steel from China. He also took steel imports out of all other trade agreements. So nobody has the right to dump below cost steel here any more. US has a lot of unused steel production capacity that could be brought back on line once prices are high enough to make it profitable. I think owners were in a wait and see mode before Biden was elected, as he could have reversed Trump policies on trade. Biden's administration, whoever is running it, has doubled down on all the Trump trade positions and tariffs. In fact, the US trade rep is now Katherine Thai. She's, ha ha ha, Taiwanese. And, surprise, she hates China. She has actually never led the negotiation of any trade agreement...a signal that US doesn't particularly care about trade deals beyond those we now have with China, Mexico, Canada, Japan, and Korea. Except Britain in due course. What Thai is expert at is suing trade partners. China is expert at never abiding by their end of trade deals. Thai has already initiated suits against China.

So figure steel prices are going to continue going up and the US government is going to do everything it can to convince US plant owners to bring US steel production back on line. We have the plants already, currently largely unused.

This is stuff I picked up watching YouTube videos from geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan, a very entertaining and insightful speaker and character.
 
China considered it strategic to have a huge steel industry and has been dumping steel in US at below cost, ruining our steel industry. We would have lost WWII if we had no steel industry then. American manufacturers were happy to have cheap steel, but that turns us into dependency on China for ability to manufacture everything including military war equipment.

Trump put major tariffs on steel from China. He also took steel imports out of all other trade agreements. So nobody has the right to dump below cost steel here any more. US has a lot of unused steel production capacity that could be brought back on line once prices are high enough to make it profitable. I think owners were in a wait and see mode before Biden was elected, as he could have reversed Trump policies on trade. Biden's administration, whoever is running it, has doubled down on all the Trump trade positions and tariffs. In fact, the US trade rep is now Katherine Thai. She's, ha ha ha, Taiwanese. And, surprise, she hates China. She has actually never led the negotiation of any trade agreement...a signal that US doesn't particularly care about trade deals beyond those we now have with China, Mexico, Canada, Japan, and Korea. Except Britain in due course. What Thai is expert at is suing trade partners. China is expert at never abiding by their end of trade deals. Thai has already initiated suits against China.

So figure steel prices are going to continue going up and the US government is going to do everything it can to convince US plant owners to bring US steel production back on line. We have the plants already, currently largely unused.

This is stuff I picked up watching YouTube videos from geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan, a very entertaining and insightful speaker and character.
Dear OldBroad44,

This old phart grew up in the "Rust Belt". Long ago the old phart had to leave that sorry part of the US of A because the steel industry left our shores. Be very careful of what statistics you read, most are BS. In the past I've seen numbers of lost jobs in the entire US steel industry which were lower than steel employment lost in only Pittsburgh, PA. By the 1970's bulldozers were knocking down Pittsburgh's steel mills. The legacy of Carnegie, Rockefeller, Mellon, & Frick are now brownfields waiting for a new owner to build.

About 1982-84 a VP of the company that I've retired from visited the site where I was employed. He gave us the "Get out of Dodge" lecture. Unions, benefits, health care, environmental regulation, labor cost................etc; were forcing industry to leave the US of A.

https://www.worldsteel.org/media-centre/press-releases/2021/august-2021-crude-steel-production.html

Look at the numbers! China vs the world! China is at 83.2 (million) metric tons and the closest is India at 9.9 MT. The US of A is at a sorry 7.5 (million) metric tons. The US of A is not coming back anytime soon! The production sites are gone, blast furnaces gone, arc furnaces gone, continuous casters gone, rail lines gone, basic oxygen process gone, etc.

AND IT ISN'T JUST STEEL...........

Every year this old phart receives the annual stock thingy. During my time clock punching years I've been part of construction & start-up teams. A 100 million dollar site was a big deal here in the sorry US of A. The annual stock thingy brags about the multiple BILLION DOLLAR sites being built in China & India.

rolling with the punches,

Foreverlost
 
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Lots of trucks can't enter California because of their pollution laws. It affects even reefer units. I bought a Perkins engine 15 years ago that was surplus because it couldn't be used in California any more.

This creates an artificial shortage of trucking.
I do consulting and risk assessment for some fleets in CA. How most companies I've worked with determine when to replace a truck is based on when it will no longer be compliant with CARB (California Air Resources Board) regulations. Some even move part of their companies into neighboring states where they can still use their assets (trucks). Others are sold to companies in Mexico. How business is killed by 1,000 cuts.
 
California is that house with a boat, new car and bankrupt.
When I was a youngster in the 1950's, most households in my neighborhood had one car. It was shared, that is, if there were any other licensed drivers in the home. Parking was absolutely not a problem. I have pictures of my old neighborhood, there are only a few scattered cars using on-street parking. Good thing, too, because that street was a major play area for kids.

Today, those same streets are walls of steel. There is never an open place to park. Most households have 4, 5, 6 or more vehicles. Driveways are full, cars are parked on lawns. Trailers, motorhomes, extra pickups, various kinds of RV's, boats, and so on.

My observation is that as a nation, we've come to the temporarily enviable position of being a people who never want for anything. Nobody ever has to do with out. No longer do people have to "save up" to get something, they just get it on credit and be damned. How long will it last, who knows.

A 100 million dollar site was a big deal here in the sorry US of A. The annual stock thingy brags about the multiple BILLION DOLLAR sites being built in China & India.
Yes, this emphatically. And worrying about billions now has morphed into trillions. President Eisenhower used to worry about a few million. Those days are gone for sure, and so has the value of our money. Which is one of the reasons for the increases. But not the only reason. Wildly expanded credit is another major cause. A third reason is complete absence of budget discipline. Once the nation embarked on free stuff for all, political will for spending discipline gradually then completely vanished. It didn't just start with this or that recent administration; it launched in the 1960's. My hope is to get through my life without having to experience the consequences.

Supply chain issues? Well, some part of that surely can be ascribed to the Covid thing. We might as well do it, everyone else is using it for cover. However, I personally think there is some element of "too many rats in a cage" going on. Just too many people wanting too many things around the world.
 
Went shopping at Winco last night. I've been the primary grocery shopper in the house since covid. They had plenty of food on the shelves but you can just tell things are getting creepy in that certain products are missing for long periods of time, there is increasingly often nothing or little behind the front row of goods and prices are obviously ticking upwards. One run on supplies due to weather, fires, politics whatever is really going to show (again) on how thin of a margin we are living in regarding supply chains.
 

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