If we can’t have confidence in global supply chains – and if we can’t have confidence in pricing – how do we plan for the future? How do businesses function? It’s a major problem that we’re just beginning to see the effects of... OVERTAXED AND UNDERWORKED Meanwhile, it’s not just raw materials that are causing angst in the economy... It’s labor as well. Washington desperately wants to tax businesses more. And on the Democratic side of the aisle, there is little-to- no appreciation for what that might mean for businesses themselves. Recently, I spoke with one business owner in the food-supply industry who told me that while it’s possible to hedge some of the materials’ costs... there’s no hedging labor : When we raise wages, and then the factory down the street raises wages, we raise again. But how long can we do this? When does it stop? Higher wages, of course, mean one of two things: either lower profits... or higher prices for the goods being made. Businesses are facing this challenge as they seek workers. Some Americans are making an educated choice to exit the labor force. The pandemic, perhaps, has taught them
and transportation backups have come together to create a perfect inflation storm... According to the Washington Post , today the cost of shipping a container from China to Los Angeles is quadruple what it cost in January of this year. The other day, American Consequences contributor Scott Garliss told me about something that happened to a friend of his that speaks volumes about our current predicament... One of the guys I bike with in the mornings owns a roofing company that does residential and commercial work in D.C. and Virginia. They’re incredibly busy and have lots of work potential with jobs they’re bidding on. This morning, he told me they had a strange event take place last week. It seems one of their main suppliers held a global conference call with all of its customers and the supplier said not only was it no longer guaranteeing dates on orders already signed, but that the prices on those same orders were no longer guaranteed anymore either! Apparently, the biggest issue is the lack of raw materials needed to make the items they need. Think about that... If prices can no longer be guaranteed, how can anyone really do business? My contractor needing to revisit pricing for some built-in bookshelves is one thing... But companies performing large-scale commercial work is another.
American Consequences
American Co s quences
45
45
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online