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Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

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Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#371
post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a system which assigns outgoing trucks an easily accessible container to deliver, rather than a specific container that has to be retrieved. This is such an obvious thing. Do they really have people so incompetent they didn't think of that? Wow

There are truck driver shortages too. It’s a crappy deal for a truck driver to take a load which they don’t know it’s risks/payout or how long of a drive they will be taking, what they’ll do at destination, or if they’ll have a return trip. Odds are you could offer truckers a special premium flat rate to clear the blockage - but it wouldn’t be sustainable.

California emission standards also disallow a decent portion of truck fleets from operating in the state. Source is an extended family member who owns a small trucking company in Midwest.

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#373
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do know something else not specified by the chart. Everyone's been stuck at home and purchasing consumer items that would usually be bought in bulk and supplied by employers, restaurants, etc. Claiming it's government spending as the cause and not covid as the cause seems silly

The ability to spend is constrained by aggregate income and available credit in society. Shifts in spending from services to goods can only alter consumption patterns so much. Here is the Fed data on services spending: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCESV As you can see, services spending is equivalent to 2019 levels today, while goods spending is 20% higher. Consider the level of fiscal stimulus, monetary stimul…

There’s a backlog of savings from limited service spending that is being worked through right now.

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> G/O Media Inc. is an American media holding company that runs Gizmodo, Kotaku, Jalopnik, Deadspin, Lifehacker, Jezebel, The Root, The A.V. Club, The Takeout, The Onion, and The Inventory - Wikipedia

> G/O was formed in April 2019 when Great Hill Partners, a private equity firm, purchased the websites from Univision for $20.6 million. Is it just me or is that a shockingly low amount for those websites?

It is -- the sites sold for $135m in 2016 (out of the gawker bankruptcy) to Univision. Gawker media group was famously operationally well run and threw off lots of cash.

After Great Hill bought them for $20m -- presumably with a ton of debt, or something -- they then put an idiot named Jim Spanfeller in charge. Jim managed to get the entire staff of deadspin -- also a profitable, well run site -- to quit en masse. Said staff later started Defector and are running it as a coop, basically. Defector has survived a full year running on subscription fees and largely without advertising (or maybe entirely without?).

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#375
post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Flexport CEO may know more, but the Flexport CEO also has an agenda of being profitable for the Flexport CEO. This may, or may not, align with being solutions and advice that benefits the public at large. In fact, it is becoming increasingly clear that things are currently "optimized" strongly enough that squeezing more profit out of the system generally corresponds to finding a sucker to take advantage of--norma…

“ The Flexport CEO may know more, but the Flexport CEO also has an agenda of being profitable for the Flexport CEO” These are all for profit companies. It’s a bit utopian to suggest anything else would be better without providing any specific alternatives.

[deleted]

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#376
post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Flexport CEO may know more, but the Flexport CEO also has an agenda of being profitable for the Flexport CEO. This may, or may not, align with being solutions and advice that benefits the public at large. In fact, it is becoming increasingly clear that things are currently "optimized" strongly enough that squeezing more profit out of the system generally corresponds to finding a sucker to take advantage of--norma…

“ The Flexport CEO may know more, but the Flexport CEO also has an agenda of being profitable for the Flexport CEO” These are all for profit companies. It’s a bit utopian to suggest anything else would be better without providing any specific alternatives.

If you want me to believe that "profit motive" is aligned with "public interest", why is everybody running to the regulators to clear this instead of spending money?

It's a bit disingenuous to suggest that "profit motive" is aligned with "public interest" in the face of all the current evidence we have in other sectors that is quite to the contrary.

To start, it is not at all clear that super low cost, super low friction shipping from China is, in fact, in the general US public interest. But it is in the interest of WalMart. And it is in the interest of Amazon.

For example, from the standpoint of the public interest, consuming fewer Christmas goods (which are mostly disposable garbage and which is what the Asian shippers are all rushing to get transported) is probably preferable. A great deal of Asian garbage which is destined to be US garbage is currently clogging out the shipping of goods which have a steady demand and are far more necessary to the functioning of the economy.

You will note that "increased foreign shipping friction causing goods to be manufactured locally again" is not on the discussion table because it is not part of an agenda that people in the shipping industry wish to countenance.

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#377

The ceo of flexport rented a boat and toured the area and reported on issues people saw and reported to him. Very informative. Tweet thread @ https://twitter.com/typesfast/status/1451543776992845834 Or threadreader https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1451543776992845834.html

Some of these comments make sense, but this guy loves hyperbole.

> This is a negative feedback loop that is rapidly cycling out of control that if it continues unabated will destroy the global economy.

No, the global economy won't be destroyed because of backed up cargo ships in LA/Long Beach. Don't be ridiculous Ryan.

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#378
post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of them are usually the top comment on a thread like this, too, because there are a large number of people who consider them authoritative (or like what they say, or dogpile, or who knows). When it’s my industry being discussed here, I can usually predict who will be in the top spot (it’s only a few), and how wrong they’ll be. It’s a real problem but it’s also the immediate amnesia thing whoever-that-was talked…

If you have subject mastery often you aren’t allowed to talk it because you might get fired or make your company look bad

This

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ability to spend is constrained by aggregate income and available credit in society. Shifts in spending from services to goods can only alter consumption patterns so much. Here is the Fed data on services spending: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCESV As you can see, services spending is equivalent to 2019 levels today, while goods spending is 20% higher. Consider the level of fiscal stimulus, monetary stimul…

There’s a backlog of savings from limited service spending that is being worked through right now.

Do you disagree that aggregate personal income was massively enhanced through stimulus spending? The facts show this.

You seem very intent on not considering that fact when it's the most obvious factor by a wide margin, with all of the data supporting it.

Are you aware of the size of federal deficit spending in 2020/2021? The level of monetary policy easing leading to more credit availability to consumers?

It's intellectually dishonest to attribute elevated retail sales solely, or even primarily to the substitution effect

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#380
post #364

The ceo of flexport rented a boat and toured the area and reported on issues people saw and reported to him. Very informative. Tweet thread @ https://twitter.com/typesfast/status/1451543776992845834 Or threadreader https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1451543776992845834.html

The renting a boat thing seems like a show. Hes got experts that should already know these things from other data sources. The boat thing is for simpletons in media to understand and spin

Taking time to stop and look at a problem is for simpletons? I don't think thats right.
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