Dozens of Freighters Anchored Off the California Coast Illustrate the Delivery Interruptions That Have Become the Hallmark of the Post-COVID Recovery | Design: Gabriela Navarro
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The global supply chain crisis can affect your purchases until 2022. Biden signed the law that will prevent a government shutdown. The Pentagon and the State Department do not leave the signals for Afghanistan. Alternative therapies found fertile ground by the FDA’s grace period.
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The most important ports in the US, Los Angeles and Long Beach, are responsible for handling around 40% of the country’s imported products, valued at around $ 1 billion annually. Currently, they are the visible face of the national and global supply chain crisis with more than 60 ships waiting to dock, with waiting times of up to 3 weeks. According the latest report from The Washington Post, dozens of freighters anchored off the California coast illustrate the delivery disruptions that have become the hallmark of the post-COVID recovery, fueling inflation and stalling growth. The pandemic served as a catalyst to expose the weaknesses in the country’s transportation chain, such as the lack of investment in key ports, just months before Christmas time, when these failures will be felt most strongly.
Here are some facts to understand this phenomenon:
- Have you noticed empty shelves or unusual delays in your orders? In part, it is because there are not enough workers to process, move, sell and deliver all products that arrive at US ports. This shortage extends to truck drivers and warehouse personnel, representing a total shortage in all parts of the supply chain. The change in the consumption habits of Americans during the pandemic, when the purchase of goods over services increased, has made these weaknesses more evident, which may continue to worsen until 2022, when they begin to subside, according to economists’ predictions.
- Los Angeles and Long Beach Port Workers are some of the most pressured for the delays. Both ports continue to shut down operations for several hours a day and take breaks on Sundays, while the major ports in Europe and Asia have been working 24/7 for years. Long Beach officials said last week they would try to operate 24 hours a day Monday through Thursday. Gene Seroka, chief executive of the Port of Los Angeles, said they will exercise more caution, maintaining existing hours while waiting for truckers and warehouse operators to extend their hours as well.
- The International Chamber of Shipping and other transport groups warned before the General Assembly from the UN that global supply chains are at risk of collapse after 2 years of restrictions due to the pandemic. The union representatives asked the heads of state and government to restore freedom of movement for the industry and to prioritize their workers to obtain vaccines, since the “mistreatment” of the workers was accumulating pressure on the already “crumbling” global supply chain, and that any lack of action is likely to increase the shortage of essential products – including electronics, food, fuel and medical supplies – before Christmas.
- According to a report by Salesforce, an American sales-on-demand software company, December’s gifts will cost much more than in earlier times due to both the supply chain crisis and the willingness of consumers to pay the high prices of products. Since yesterday, several businesses like Bed, Bath and Beyond They have begun to warn that people should start their Christmas shopping as soon as possible to avoid running into out-of-stock items and exuberant prices.
TODAY IN CAPITOL HILL
1. The Senate passed a provisional bill to finance the government until December 3. Measure happened to be voted by the House of Representatives this afternoon, and signed by biden tonight within hours of the end of the fiscal year. The resolution maintains static spending levels for both military and non-defense programs until formal budgets are established, and does not contemplate the suspension of the debt limit.
2. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin reiterated that his limit to vote in favor of the Democratic proposal – which will be approved by reconciliation – is $ 1.5 trillion, $ 2 billion less than the current plan. His statements against the high budget add to tensions with progressive Democrats, who threaten to block the bipartisan infrastructure plan in the House if their demands are not heard. Senator Kyrsten Sinema joined Manchin in ensuring that he will not vote in favor of a $ 3.5 billion budget, which threatens the simple majority needed for reconciliation.
3. The Biden Administration set new priorities to its border officials, continuing its focus on deporting those with serious criminal records and encouraging immigration officials to weigh all of a migrant’s circumstances before attempting to remove them. Through a memorandum, the Department of Homeland Security directed its officers to use their discretion before deporting. “Most of the undocumented noncitizens who could be deported – the majority of the more than 11 million unregulated people within the US – have been contributing members of our communities for years,” argued DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. .
4. Biden named 10 more nominees for federal court judges, in which it maintains an ongoing focus on diversity, according to the White House. This eighth round of nominees brings the total nominees to 53, and includes historic “firsts” such as David Ruiz, who would be the first Hispanic federal judge of the Ohio District Court.
YOU MUST KNOW
- What came first? The timeline of Afghanistan’s chaotic military withdrawal is at the center of disputes between the State Department and the Pentagon, trying to establish who recommended what and when. While Pentagon officials say they pressured the State Department to expedite the evacuation – before August 31 – in view of the rapid arrival of the Taliban to power, representatives of the other agency refute the allegations and maintain that there was never disagreement with exit plans by the Department of Defense. In a closed-door session with senators on Tuesday, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, blamed the State Department with blunt remarks, saying officials “waited too long” to order the operation, which was also denied. . As lawmakers try to understand the outcome of the recall, accusations between federal government agencies threaten cordiality within Biden’s cabinet.
- The supreme court agreed to hear a case concerning Senator Ted Cruz’s campaign in 2018, which will put under consideration regulations limiting the money committees can raise after the election to repay previous loans. Although federal law allows candidates to make unlimited loans to their campaign committees, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 imposes a limit of $ 250,000 on the ability to repay those loans with money contributed by donors after the election. . Cruz loaned his campaign $ 260,000, which means there is $ 10,000 outstanding for repayment. “Existing Federal Election Commission rules benefit sitting politicians and the super-rich by making it difficult for candidates for public office to run,” a spokesman for the senator said in a statement.
BEFORE YOU LEAVE
- Dismissed on charges of harassment. Former Trump campaign coordinator Corey Lewandowski he was removed from his position as supervisor of the super PAC Make America Great Again Action, one of the large organizations that raises contributions in the campaign, following accusations of sexual harassment against him by a donor. Trashelle Odom, the wife of an Idaho construction executive, accused Lewandowski of repeatedly touching her and making explicit comments to her during a benefit event in Las Vegas in 2016.
- Uncontrolled experiments. In 2017, the FDA granted you a grace period from 3 years to hundreds of clinics promoting unapproved stem cell procedures to prove their effectiveness, a grant that – in 2021 – has rapidly doubled experimental therapies for arthritis, Alzheimer’s, COVID-19 and other diseases. What worries? “How quickly experimental medicine can overcome government oversight … Regulators now face a huge, uncooperative industry that claims it shouldn’t be subject to regulation.”
- A historical return. Governor Gavin Newsom today returned the resort known as Bruce’s Beach, in the city of Manhattan Beach, Los Angeles, California, to the descendants of a black couple who had run out of Manhattan Beach nearly a century ago. “When racism failed to drive the Bruce’s Beach community out of the city, city officials in 1924 condemned the neighborhood and seized more than two dozen properties across eminent domain. The reason, they said, was an urgent need for a public park, “the Los Angeles Times reports, but for decades the properties were empty, and were eventually transferred to the state.
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