Supply Chain Disruption at the Source

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Retailers are beginning to suspend, or cancel outright, orders from their Asian factories and other suppliers.  So far, it’s intended to be temporary; for example:

Ulrika Isaksson, an H&M spokeswoman, said “our long-term commitment to suppliers will remain intact, but in this extreme situation we need to respond fast.”

The suspensions and cancelations might—might—seem warranted regarding Asian suppliers, but the temporary nature of them, to the extent they’re warranted at all, should be limited to South and East Asia—in the main, Vietnam, Republic of Korea, and Japan.

The cancelations need to be made permanent regarding the People’s Republic of China, given that government’s dishonesty and its companies’ well-known poor quality control—the latest example of which is directly related to the PRC’s role in the Wuhan Virus’ global spread and that nation’s pretended claim to be aiding in the world’s recovery:

…Beijing sent 150,000 coronavirus rapid testing kits to [the Czech Republic] which return false results up to 80% of the time.

PRC producers just can’t be trusted; retailers, and all other producers, need to adjust their supply chains to originate somewhere else than in the People’s Republic of China. Permanently.

Strings on Airline Emergency Support

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As we contemplate (what should be) a one-time support/subsidy for airlines in the midst of the present Wuhan Virus situation, a letter writer to The Wall Street Journal‘s Letters facility had a suggestion.

[I]f we the people are going to bail out the airlines then a caveat should be that senior executives take a pay cut and don’t receive their usual massive bonuses.

Agreed, but they’re not the only ones. The management teams of the various airline industry unions—national and Local—also should be required to take substantial pay cuts and forego their benefits, however the unions might couch the labels on those benefits.

After all, union management teams, with their greed, have contributed to the costs the airlines are forced to cover.  Labor—crew, maintenance, and passenger service—runs about 35% of airline operating costs.

YGTBSM

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And now the Greens, the climatistas, have shown their true colors. Valentin Dupouey, Head of the Communications Unit at European Green Party, say this, as paraphrased by Eric Worrall, writing for Watts Up With That?:

[A] major overhaul of Democracy is required to force acceptance of the economic de-growth required to address the climate crisis.

Because we’re just too screamingly stupid to know what’s good for us, so to hell with us—the Greens will do democracy for us.

And this, a direct quote from the Right Reverend Dupouey [emphasis Dupouey’s]:

we need to be able to say to a Chinese average citizen that he will never be able to reach the material lifestyle of a French minimum-wage worker.

To hell with all of us. No aspiration for better lives—you won’t be allowed better lives.

Wow.

Progressive-Democrats and their…Preferences

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has buried another item in her 1,400+ page demand list of “relief” supports that she is requiring in quid pro quo for her support for the Senate Wuhan Virus relief bill that her minions in the Senate are actively blocking: $35 million for operations and maintenance for New York’s JFK Center for the Performing Arts. Pelosi’s bill would provide funding for

…employee compensation and benefits, grants, contracts, payments for rent or utilities, fees for artists or performers….

Notice that: Pelosi is actively denying the same relief for average Americans and the small, medium, large businesses that employ them unless she can have her Precious Ones subsidized—by those same out-of-work employees and closed-down small and medium-sized businesses, especially, who must pay the taxes for Pelosi’s demands.

Your Progressive-Democratic Party in action—not working for anyone’s benefit but their own.

Government Ownership of Private Companies

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There is a move afloat that, as part of a (supposedly) temporary support measure during the current Wuhan Virus situation, the Federal government should inject money into troubled businesses by taking equity stakes—buying shares of stocks—in them.

As The Wall Street Journal pointed out, that’s a bad idea, and it illustrated the dangers by describing the failure of Japan’s moves in this regard.

As it happens, we have a domestic example of the dangers of governments buying private company stocks: CALPERS. That huge (State) government pension fund has, for all the best reasons, invested in a broad range of American companies, and it has invested in some of them heavily.

Like all significant owners, CALPERS is using the influences of its stakes to push those companies to act on its imperatives. Unfortunately, CALPERS’ imperatives are government imperatives, and these are not necessarily sound business imperatives.

The Federal government doesn’t need to expand that negative risk.