Tag Archives: US/Global Economics

We are not the typical American car buyers. In 40 years, my wife and I have owned exactly five cars, two of which we still drive: one is 21 years old and just ticked over 100K miles, while the other is 10 years old and will soon hit 50K. But who knows how much longer the 21 year-old Pontiac Vibe will last? When it dies, we’ll consider an EV or hybrid. There are certainly a lot of Teslas on the road, and there are other EVs that are cheaper than...

McDonald’s and other fast-food giants are struggling in the inflation economy. qz.com The inflation economy has come for Fat Food. As I read this, I would look at their costs. They talk about their reductions in Labor. It looks more to me like inventory turns and their investment in it. That is itself could make them more competitive. I would have to take a deeper dive into the industry to figure it out. ~~~~~~~~ Inflation has fallen far...

A while back, I exchanged emails with the International Energy Agency. My goal was to find out what I could present, what I could not present, and also gain permission to utilize their charts and detail. They said yes. The detail here is on EVs in general and what countries are doing the most. As you may expect, China is ahead of the curve. I would say the US is still trying to get it right. I need to look a bit deeper into these reports as there...

by Lloyd Alter Carbon Upfront! The Toronto Star leads today with a story, “Ripe for a challenge,” in which climate change reporter Kate Allen describes attempts to grow strawberries indoors in Canada “as red-ripe and juicy as if they came out of a sunny field in July.” Canadians import C$6.2 billion more fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables than our food exports, “but a pandemic, wars, and the steadily thumping drumbeat of climate change have...

It is getting serious now. Kroger is willing to sell off more stores in order to consolidate with Albertsons. The one thing we keep on seeing is the manipulation of supply chain due to circumstance to achieve manufacturing shortfall, and influence, to maximize profits. Much of what we have and are experiencing was avoidable. The tools exist to give better perspectives of what is going on from start to finish of product. As you read through my telling...

by Steve Roth Wealth Economics Imagine a five-player poker game. Assume all the players have equal skill, so the flows across the table over the course of the game are just a random walk. “It’s just how the cards fall.” All the players start with the same number of chips. But there’s one difference: four of the players don’t have any more assets/money to buy new chips. If they lose all their chips, they’re out. The fifth player has...

Prof. Heather Cox Richardson Letters from an American When Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addressed a joint meeting of Congress today, he tried to remind lawmakers of who Americans are. “The U.S. shaped the international order in the postwar world through economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power,” he reminded them. “It championed freedom and democracy. It encouraged the stability and prosperity of nations, including...

The one thing we keep on seeing is the manipulation of supply chain by circumstance to achive manufacturing shortfall, and influence to maximize profits. Much of what we have and are experiencing was avoidable. The tools exist to give better perspectives of what is going on from start to finish of product. As you read through my telling of what I see, you will get near the end and run into a link to a Vox article. It support what I am saying and have...

I try not to blog about stuff I don’t know much about, but sometimes I can’t help myself.  This is one of those times, so caveat lector.  This could be way off base.  Do not quote this to your friends.  Do not train your AI on it. Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei has made noises about dollarizing the Argentine economy.  I have no idea if this would be a smart thing to do, but let’s assume it is. One argument against dollarization...

My former chairman used to tell the story of when he was a resident on rounds in the 1950s, he would hear a pounding sound in some of the patient rooms. When he looked in to discover the source, it was a nurse pounding the back of a patient who was stretched across the bed with his/her head hanging over the edge. The nurse was trying to dislodge the mucus in the lungs of the patients, who had cystic fibrosis. While cystic fibrosis is a multisystem...