Economy
Apple Set to Cut iPhone Production Goals Due to Chip Crunch – Bloomberg
Apple Inc. is likely to slash its projected iPhone 13 production targets for 2021 by as many as 10 million units as prolonged chip shortages hit its flagship product, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The company had expected to produce 90 million new iPhone models in the last three months of the year, but it’s now telling manufacturing partners that the total will be lower because Broadcom Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. are struggling to deliver enough components, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private.
China to Let Power Prices Rise in Bid to Fix Electricity Crunch – WSJ
China said it would allow the price of coal-fired power to rise more sharply, in the hope that market forces can address a power crunch that has threatened growth and caused ripple effects around the world.
UK job vacancies reach 20-year high – BBC
The number of job vacancies in the UK has hit a record high, according to the latest official figures.
Vacancies hit 1.1 million between July and September, the Office for National Statistics said, the highest level since records began in 2001. The largest increase in vacancies was in the retail sector and in motor vehicle repair, it said. The UK unemployment rate was estimated at 4.5%, compared with a rate of 4% before the pandemic.
Yale’s Stephen Roach sees growing risks of stagflation sparked by broken supply chains – Quartz
Economist Stephen Roach warned last year that the world is a busted supply chain away from stagflation. Now, 17 months later, the links that bind the global economy together threaten to disrupt Christmas. Conversations about stagflation are on the rise.
As Roach sees it, we’re getting a glimpse of what happens when supply chains are dismantled—we get goods shortages and higher prices, slower expansion in gross domestic product, and, eventually, higher unemployment than we’ve gotten used to. The senior fellow at Yale University says the Biden administration needs to consider those consequences, which look eerily similar to the stagflation of the 1970s, as it aims to yank supply links out of China. He’s not convinced that shortages of everything from computer chips to spare parts for appliances will be fleeting. “It wouldn’t take much to sever some of these really important links, and that is pretty much what’s played out,” he said.
Will The U.S. Be Spared From The Global Energy Crisis? – OilPrice.com
Although the regional natural gas markets are now interconnected more than ever thanks to the LNG trade, U.S. gas prices will largely be spared the extreme volatility and record-high European and Asian prices.
The United States has a fairly adequate natural gas supply in storage ahead of the winter. This is unlike Europe, where depleted inventories and rebounding demand have created a rush to stock up for the coldest months of the year, which in turn has caused a supply crunch and record-high gas and power prices.
‘It’s a madhouse’: Organic U.S. soy prices hit record, fuel food inflation – Metro
U.S. prices for organic soybeans used to feed livestock and manufacture soy milk have surged to record highs as imports that make up most of the country’s supply have declined, triggering price increases for food including organically raised chicken.
The costly soybeans and higher-priced organic products are fueling food inflation at a time consumers are eager to eat better and focus on health during the COVID-19 pandemic. The $56 billion U.S. organic food sector is also grappling with a shortage of shipping containers and a tight labor market as global food prices hit a 10-year high.
Maersk Diverts Ships From Busy U.K. Ports Short on Trucker – BloombergQuint
A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S said it had to divert some ships from the U.K.’s largest container port because of congestion tied to a trucker shortage that’s clogging the flow of cargo boxes into and out of the country. The Copenhagen-based shipping line, the world’s largest, has sent some bigger ships to other European ports and relied on smaller feeder vessels to bring containers through British export and import terminals, according to Lars Mikael Jensen, head of Maersk’s global ocean network. His comments were reported earlier in the Financial Times.
Environment
For China, COP26 is a vital marketing opportunity – Quartz
The COP26 climate change summit is just weeks away, and China remains one of few major greenhouse gas-emitting countries to not have submitted a new carbon-cutting plan.
As the world’s top CO2 emitter, China plays a decisive role in the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Over the past year, Beijing has announced a series of important pledges, among them hitting peak emissions by 2030 and net-zero by 2060; ending financing for coal-fired power plants abroad; and expanding the reach and rigor of China’s nascent—and so far ineffective—carbon-trading market.
World needs to step up on climate change for the good of all mankind, Putin says, announcing plan to protect vast wilds of Russia – RT
In a speech to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity on Tuesday, the Russian leader revealed government plans to create the almost two dozen reservations, spanning multiple regions. Putin argued that, due to the “colossal absorbing capabilities of Russian forests”, the country’s contribution to combating climate change is significant and must be protected.
Health
Report says UK’s slow virus lockdown cost 1000s of lives – AP
Britain’s failure to impose a lockdown in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic cost thousands of unnecessary deaths and ranks among the country’s worst public health blunders, lawmakers concluded Tuesday in the nation’s first comprehensive report on the pandemic.
The deadly delay derived from the failure of British government ministers to question the recommendations of scientific advisers, resulting in a dangerous level of “groupthink” that caused them to dismiss the more aggressive strategies adopted in East and Southeast Asia to limit infections, the report said.
The post Daily Digest 10/13 — Apple Set to Cut iPhone Production Goals Due to Chip Crunch; China to Let Power Prices Rise in Bid to Fix Electricity Crunch… appeared first on Peak Prosperity.
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