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Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

bloombergquint.com

111–120 of 153 posts

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get the point, but corporations care more about their own profits. They will continue manufacturing in Asia for the foreseeable future, since it is too costly to open manufacturing plants in the US. The government would need to do something momentous to change this, which I don't see happening.

As it seems, they are already unable to manufacture in asia.

You don't seem to understand that there is a shortage of workers here, and we're not even producing anything! The labor is not available even to transport and sell the products. Imagine if this country tried to manufacture things... Unfortunately, for the foreseeable future the market has no choice other than continue to buy from Asia.

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all momentary situation caused by the pandemic. In one year, people will not even remember this. Companies will not spend billions of dollars unless they have no other option.

> This is all momentary situation caused by the pandemic Very unlikely. 2020 was beginning of a super crisis caused by several reasons: 1) Depletion of fossil fuels which are used to produce consumer goods, e.g. to heat factories and provide electricity for the factory machines. Also fossil fuels are used to transport produced goods around half of the world. It was all possible due to abundant and cheap energy. But t…

> rising economic problems will prompt governments to start wars to exterminate "superfluous" population

The US is already doing this. The wars of extermination on the middle East are motivated by the desire to control the sources of oil, and when people react they're labeled as terror threats and eliminated. It is also not a new phenomenon, as it was already practiced to control the whole of north America and Australia in the past.

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#113
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a home, two cars, food, and blue paint. I’m not rich by any means, but my life has never been more abundant. A coworker gave me a graphics card, too!

Gas is getting to 2008 levels where I live, surely you would notice that if you have two vehicles

Nope, haven’t noticed since everyone is WFH now.

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#114
post #102

My hope is that supply chain issues will make clear the downsides to execs (not just the workers) and governments of externalizing all manufacturing abroad and out of reach. Look at the chaos caused by a pandemic, now imagine war or purposefully using supply chain as leverage.

That is actually partly the point, interdependent economies have stronger incentives to get along and not go to war with each other. It's one of the reasons the EU exists, for example: https://eeas.europa.eu/archives/delegations/iceland/evropust...

That's great for equal powers. When one power is weaker than the other, it's a recipe for exploitation.

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#115
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that you cannot buy a graphics card anymore.. or a car.. and food is expensive.. and fuel too.. and blue paint also.

I have a home, two cars, food, and blue paint. I’m not rich by any means, but my life has never been more abundant. A coworker gave me a graphics card, too!

Do you have cake you can hand out too?

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#116

> "There is one basic color tint that is extremely difficult to get" Any idea of the possible tint which is being referred to? Wondering if it's a mineral source requiring mining, heavy-metal processing, or what?

> Rising energy costs - coal and crude - have pushed up prices of raw materials such as phthalic anhydride, cuprous chloride and urea. These are used to manufacture CPC Blue (Copper phthalocyanine blue) crude, a key ingredient of pigment blue, which in turn goes into the making of various shades of blue paints. [0]

[0] https://m.timesofindia.com/city/ahmedabad/gujarats-bolt-from...

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#117
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make it sound like a bad thing. The curve was flattened, millions of lives were saved, and life goes on mostly as before.

Except that you cannot buy a graphics card anymore.. or a car.. and food is expensive.. and fuel too.. and blue paint also.

Graphics cards don’t really have anything to do with the pandemic. It’s more to do with scalpers and crypto clownery.

Some countries have had absolutely disastrous bouts of covid this past year (like Vietnam) and it screwed up supply chains a lot. Companies canceling orders because of expected drop in demand that didn’t happen are all rushing to put those orders back in, and it turned into a mess. There are plenty of factors at work here because each country that contributes to the chain had some different sort of problem.

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#118
post #102

My hope is that supply chain issues will make clear the downsides to execs (not just the workers) and governments of externalizing all manufacturing abroad and out of reach. Look at the chaos caused by a pandemic, now imagine war or purposefully using supply chain as leverage.

That is actually partly the point, interdependent economies have stronger incentives to get along and not go to war with each other. It's one of the reasons the EU exists, for example: https://eeas.europa.eu/archives/delegations/iceland/evropust...

Yeah, I get the theory -- it's not a particularly deep theory -- but does it really work?

Consider that when nations go to war, they will bomb the hell out of each other's industries. So if they are willing to risk that when they go to war, why would the loss of mutual trade be enough of a threat to avert war? I don't see how the cost is increased between a bombed out factory that used to trade with you, and a bombed out factor that traded with someone else.

Similarly in wars, nations embargo each other and sink each other's shipping, so again not sure why loss of mutual trade makes the cost of war unacceptable, if this higher cost is already acceptable?

This reminds me of the Olympic games that were founded at the end of the 19th C in order to promote peace among nations. The theory was that if nations could compete on the field, they wouldn't compete in war. I think that theory turned out to be as robust as the trade-makes-peace theory, which itself did not fare well in WW1.

At the same time, the EU has created an enormous amount of resentment and animosity between nations, as Italy and Greece are forced to adopt the same currency as Germany, which hurts their economies but subsidizes the German economy. The Germans, in turn, feel resentful for bailing out the South (by buying up so many assets in the South), apparently not realizing that purchasing all these assets is what allows the trade imbalances to continue. If anything we know that these types of asymmetric cross border capital flows are highly destabilizing, and do not promote peace at all.

My guess is what keeps Europe from going to war is that it remains under the US sphere of influence, at least militarily, and so the irritations and rivalries created by the EU do not spill out into war. Basically the domestic populations hate each other much more, but the states themselves are too crippled to act with much autonomy, and so they don't really have the agency to even start a war. They are just left seething, as their capital stock is sold off to their neighbors, but there is nothing they can do about it. This will not end well.

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the traditional liberal thinking, yes, but warmaking is not binary. There's open war, cold war, hegemon bullying, and lots of other conflicts. Look at how much China tried to sabotage the Australian economy this last year (and vice versa of course) even though China NEEDED Australian coal and resources for their industry. Political considerations in the short run has priorities, even if it's economically costl…

It needs to be both. You build at home and trade with the global market for their goods. Germany seems to pull it off pretty well. You may not sell as many with more expensive local manufacturing prices but the goods will be of a much higher quality and so more expensive.

As long as Putin doesn't turn their gas off.

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re your 1st paragraph: Ahh, yeah, when things change beyond first estimations, let's use outdated statements made using old data to conclude "They were lying from the beginning, it's been planned all along!". Meanwhile it's month 18 in USA because the antivax folks started with the premise of non-cooperation ("because I hate the other party") and worked from there to invent all sorts of excuses why their non-cooperat…

If 100% of the population were fully vaccinated tomorrow, would that end the pandemic?

Actually, yeah.

That would mean on average an infected person would infect less than one person and thus after a short while we converge on a zero infected population; as an infected person you either get well and unlikely to get infected again or die.

Vaccines work probabilistically and at scale. You need everyone to get the vaccine. If you have pockets of "inoculation" and give enough space to the virus to evolve through retransmission or too long to live, well tough luck.

This is the tool we have. And historically pandemics destroyed us. Not sure what we hope for here.

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