Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you ready to sign up and go fight in Ukraine or elsewhere and die to stop authoritarianism as a matter of practicality? It's not a very fair question to ask, I know, but I think we really need to make sure we are honest about what we're asking people to do. Cutting economic ties in these specific cases isn't enough to actually stop the bloodshed and bring about stability. There are practical limits to our willpow…
> Are you ready to sign up and go fight in Ukraine or elsewhere and die to stop authoritarianism as a matter of practicality? Not necessarily, as I’m not directly threatened, but I’m more than happy to carve out a piece of my paycheck to give Ukrainians any and every piece of equipment they need to do it for me.
Port of Los Angeles says shipping volume will plummet 35% next week
481–490 of 672 posts
Re: Port of Los Angeles says shipping volume will plummet 35% next week
#482This could get really ugly when the shelves start going empty. This may make the toilet paper incident seem quaint in comparison.
Empty shelves are just one of the symptoms. The real pain will come from companies having to deal with increased taxes (that's what tariffs are) for Chinese components, decreased exports (counter tariffs, anti US sentiments), etc. and then their follow up to that would be using tools like layoffs, price increases, etc. Some of those companies might have to close doors and go bankrupt. If that happens a lot you get th…
It was some semi private line, who would have to pay twice the usual price in a unfavorable market.
The part apparatchiks didnt need to order them. They just dont want to overpay.
Re: Port of Los Angeles says shipping volume will plummet 35% next week
#483Earlier quoted context omitted.
NYT, WaPo, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS are not niche. They all ran cover for Biden until the debate made it too obvious. They were not "very critical". They are, however, extremely critical of anything Trump does.
I wouldn’t say extremely critical of Trump. He brings half of it on himself. Simply reporting what he says and does that makes him look incompetent is not being particularly critical.
Re: Port of Los Angeles says shipping volume will plummet 35% next week
#484Earlier quoted context omitted.
... what hope exactly. The republicans in congress are so lost in the sauce that they won't challenge the great orange hope in the quarter. The soonest I think we can see anyone fighting back, politically, won't happen until the midterms AT BEST. This is assuming that the republicans/trump don't come up with some issue that they can swing the midterms on and/or don't gut the electoral system to the point that they ca…
> impeachment and removal seems unachievable. It takes 20 of 53 Republican senators for impeachment. That's a high bar, but Nixon was close when he resigned. Useful reading: "How the Good Guys Finally Won" (1975), by Jimmy Breslin. This covers how Nixon and Agnew were ejected. The Internet Archive has full text.[1] [1] https://archive.org/details/howgoodguysfinal00bres/page/n9/m...
If they didn't vote for impeachment in the two times he was impeached in his first term, and if they supported him after January 6th then they're not going to vote for impeachment now.
The Republicans under Nixon were the same party in name only, and they did not have the same blind loyalty to Nixon. They had opposing voices. They had separate factions. Now the only faction is Trump-worship.
Re: Port of Los Angeles says shipping volume will plummet 35% next week
#485Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is disingenuous even by your usual standards. “cheap Chinese crap for Christmas” was just one example of things that tariffs will make it harder to get, by no means the only one. It’s not the 90s anymore. Lots of Chinese goods are neither cheap nor crap, nor producible elsewhere.
I’m specifically responding to a post that links an article about christmas toy shortages. I know China makes some incredible technology. But it also makes a lot of cheap crap nobody needs. Can we at least agree on banning that?
No (why? what's the actual problem with having cheap crap nobody needs?). But I'd at least agree with something like a carbon tax to target the environmental externalities of the type of commerce you're talking about.
Re: Port of Los Angeles says shipping volume will plummet 35% next week
#486Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sal Mercogliano who runs "What's Going On with Shipping?" is one of the best informed commentators in the subjects of logistics and shipping. He's also a skilled presenter... enough so that I subscribe to his channel and I've not got any real special interest in subject (but I do recognize it's economic importance). Also, in a different comment, his work at Campbell is mentioned, but I think that leaves open why he h…
Wow I loved this "What's going on with US Ports" video. Subscribed. I love channels like this. People with a deep understanding that just report facts as they are. I wish more mainstream media did this.
Re: Port of Los Angeles says shipping volume will plummet 35% next week
#487Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are we really subscribing to Reaganistic trickle-down economic theory now? How sure are we that those imports aren't mostly just lining the pockets of the rich? We're measuring the wrong things. We need to measure cost of living instead of how empty or full a Port is. We don't know if these two things are correlated yet.
That's not what trickle-down economics mean. Trickle-down is the idea that giving tax breaks or benefits to the wealthy or big corporations will eventually benefit everyone else through increased investment or job creation. What I’m talking about here is the basic flow of goods and services in an economy—when that gets disrupted, the effects hit workers and consumers directly, not eventually or indirectly. When impor…
Re: Port of Los Angeles says shipping volume will plummet 35% next week
#488Earlier quoted context omitted.
China is not only cheaper but in many cases better at manufacturing. I sometimes deal with a Canadian vs a Chinese supplier for a component of a consumer product, and the difference in customer service, quality, and speed is stark. AND it’s cheaper. The only issue from a logistics point of view is that China is far and shipping is slow.
Is Canadian quality bad? As a European I don't have much experience with stuff made in Canada, I think. At least I can't think of any...
But the item I in question is low-cost and plastic.
There are other, higher-margin things we buy from Canadians and the experience is very different. But these aren't the things people typically want to onshore with tariffs.
Re: Port of Los Angeles says shipping volume will plummet 35% next week
#489This could get really ugly when the shelves start going empty. This may make the toilet paper incident seem quaint in comparison.
It's a good thing the United States doesn't depend on China for toilet paper, then. > The United States primarily sources its toilet paper domestically, with about 90% being manufactured within the country.However, a significant portion of imports come from Canada and Mexico. In fact, the United States does not depend on China for any essential consumer goods from what I can find.
Re: Port of Los Angeles says shipping volume will plummet 35% next week
#490I found out yesterday that the port of LA has a free real-time dashboard ( https://tower.portoptimizer.com/ ) so you can check the stats yourself. While it's interesting that next (week 19) shows a 35% drop YoY, the following week predicts a 25% increase from w19 and "only" 8.7% drop YoY.
This site is obviously a "hostile and political act" by the Port of LA.