Economy
Texas Freeze Creates Global Plastics Shortage
First, it was a demand slump across pretty much every manufacturing industry because of the pandemic. Then a surge in demand for electronics caused a shortage of microchips, which hit the automotive industry particularly hard. Now, the Texas Freeze has caused a global shortage of plastics. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the cold spell that shut down oil fields and refineries in Texas is still affecting operations, with several petrochemical plants on the Gulf Coast remaining closed a month after the end of the crisis. This creates a shortage of essential raw materials for a range of industries, from carmaking to medical consumables and even house building.
The massive cargo ship blocking the Suez Canal has finally been freed and the supply chain backup shouldn’t take long to resolve itself, former Shell Oil president John Hofmeister told “Cavuto: Coast to Coast” Monday.
“I think there are pretty good communications with the authorities and I think it will untangle itself in, let’s say, the next week or so,” Hofmeister said. “I don’t think it’s going to take much longer than that … Unless another mishap occurs. That’s where it could get all bottled up again. But let’s hope that they’ve got it under control.”
Biden To Float $3 Trillion Plan Wednesday As Moderate Dems Push Back On Tax Hikes To Pay For It
President Biden is about to introduce two separate components of what is expected to be a $3 trillion infrastructure plan, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told Fox News on Sunday.
The first part of the “Build Back Better” plan – which Biden will float on Wednesday – is expected to focus on rebuilding ‘roads and railways,’ while the second part which will be released “in just a couple of weeks” will focus on “social infrastructure” funding, including childcare and healthcare.
As U.S. Corporations Face Reckoning Over Prescription Opioids, CEOs Keep Cashing In
Imagine you’re part of a project that goes horribly wrong at work, causing a scandal, costing your company a ton of money, maybe even putting people at risk. Now imagine after that kind of performance your company rewards you with a raise and a bonus.
Critics say that’s happening right now with CEOs at big drug and health care companies tangled up in the opioid crisis.
Tech Bubbles: What You Need To Know
March 10, 2000 marked the peak of the dot-com bubble. Almost to the day 21 years later, a new tech bubble is in the process of bursting. The peak of the current NASDAQ-bubble occurred on February 9, while the 2020 Corona-trough had its one-year anniversary on March 23rd. If we want to know whether we are in a bubble yet again, we need to examine its characteristics.
Zero Lessons Learned: Stock Buybacks Soar To All Time High
One would have hoped that if the global financial community had learned one lesson from the covid crisis, it would be that companies would be far less reckless when repurchasing billions in shares – all with the express purpose of making shareholders and management richer – while levering up and exposing themselves to catastrophic risk, usually culminating in taxpayer bailout requests as the following headline from just over a year ago summarized so well.
Energy
Biden Envisions Thousands of Wind Turbines Spinning at Sea
The Biden administration is outlining ambitions to dramatically boost offshore wind power in the U.S. by 2030, pushing to drive construction of projects at sea capable of generating enough electricity for more than 10 million American homes.
Top administration officials unveiled the new goal in a Monday meeting with state officials, executives and labor leaders, as part of President Joe Biden’s push to counter climate change, promote renewable energy and strip the electric grid of greenhouse gas emissions by 2035. As part of the push, federal regulators took steps to advance the sale of offshore wind farm rights in Atlantic waters south of New York’s Long Island.
Gold & Silver
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