Gosh. This #Bidenomics thing is such a swell performer that the Federal Reserve had to pull what is basically an emergency half-point rate cut to try to redirect where the Biden-HARRIS economy is actually going.
It sure hasn't been a bed of roses for anyone but the vegetable in the White House (this past July 21st being the one exception). His cabinet fumble-bumbles in the Labor and Transportation Departments have not helped the supply side of the equation a bit.
As we head into the home stretch of the election season and his vice-president scrapes and claws for any positive news she can glean - not to mention trying to distance herself from her job and partner in crime of the past almost four years - a series of labor actions with dire consequences if unaverted would be the last thing she needs on her rocky march to the White House.
Normally, you'd think the sitting-on-a-beach-40%-of-the-time POTATUS would lend a girl a helping hand in the "get them to cool their frickin' jets" department.
HEH
Not so her buddy Joe. Much like you don't see his charming wife, DOCTOR Jill Biden, on the trail for Kamala, you don't see any sign that POTATUS is interested in anything more than double-checking his SPF factor and maybe making a speech or two.
JUST IN: After a 5-day stay in the Santa Ynez Valley in California, Joe Biden leaves for a 9-DAY vacation at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) August 26, 2024
Joe Biden, we are told is, the President of the United States. pic.twitter.com/Ck0YkXdSWP
On the 12th of this month, Boeing machinist workers went out on strike against a company reeling from bad news and shoddy products.
Yesterday, Boeing announced furloughs for white-collar workers in order to preserve some cash for the duration of the work action or until the company implodes - whatever comes first.
Boeing has announced that they will be placing some employees on "temporary furloughs" to preserve cash amid an ongoing machinist strike that has brought airplane production to a halt.
The company's new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, who took the helm in August, released a statement Wednesday saying that a "large number of US-based executives, managers and employees" will be placed on temporary furloughs while IAM District 751 and Boeing continue to bargain on an agreement.
"Our business faces substantial challenges and it is important that we take difficult steps to preserve cash and ensure that Boeing is able to successfully recover," Ortberg wrote.
Tens of thousands of employees, both salaried and hourly, are impacted by the furlough announcement, according to a Boeing spokesperson.
Today - lemme count...seven days later - Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg offered the equivalent of 'hope and prayers.'
By George, said Pete, he's an optimist, and he's gonna keep an eye on things.
..."I do believe that both parties want to get to a resolution here, and hoping to see one that makes sense for the workers and it works for a company that really needs to find its way forward on so many fronts," Buttigieg told CNBC in an interview. Other airlines as well as the Biden administration are watching the situation closely, he added.
Oh, well done on Strike One.
I'm sure the "tens of thousands" of furloughed employees appreciate the concern.
On to Strike Two - the UAW on 25 September.
What? You thought that was so last year?
A year after unprecedented strikes by the United Auto Workers against the Detroit automakers, the union is once again threatening work stoppages that could disrupt the U.S. automotive industry.
The UAW on Wednesday announced a strike deadline at a Ford Motor tool and die plant that supports the automaker’s Rouge Complex near Detroit – one of two U.S. plants that produce the company’s highly profitable F-150 pickup truck.
The 11:59 p.m. Sept. 25 strike deadline came a day after UAW President Shawn Fain announced plans to hold strike authorization votes at one or more local unions covering Stellantisplants in the U.S.
Besides authorizing a strike action (which Stellantis claims is illegal), the union's filed a gazillion complaints with the Labor Relations Board.
I'm not sure Shawn Fain's group would welcome any Biden administration intervention even if it were to be forthcoming, considering the tenor of remarks coming from union members lately. Particularly awkward for Harris, they're coming from UAW members in Michigan.
You know how she's the big Green guru?
Yeah. About that.
Michigan union members blame Biden electric-vehicle mandates for auto-industry layoffs: ‘Want to slit our throats’
The auto industry is big business in Michigan, and a major round of layoffs is revving the election into high gear for industry workers in the critical swing state — who blame the Biden-Harris administration’s heavy-handed electric-vehicle mandates for the painful job losses.
Stellantis, which manufactures Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles, announced last month it will lay off 2,450 workers at its Warren plant. While industry jobs in the state have been declining since 1990, Michigan autoworkers explained to The Post why Team Biden’s green-energy rules are at fault this time.
Whoa dawg.
But that's far from the worst of the looming knuckleballs coming in that this administration is ignoring, and the Democratic nominee is particularly unsuited to answering any questions about, God forbid, even beginning to understand the ramifications.
If it comes to pass, Strike Three arrives across the plate on Oct 1, but the effects are already starting.
#njmornings Longshoreman may strike in two weeks. 45,000 port workers, from #Elizabeth and #Newark, to Maine, and all the way to Texas reportedly want a 77% increase over 6 years. The U-S Maritime Alliance is said to be offering a wage increase of 40 percent. @News12NJ pic.twitter.com/G1W6z2io3g
— Tony Caputo (@TonyCaputo) September 19, 2024
Yes, sir. The rates are already climbing. If you want your stuff moved to make sure it misses all the fun if the deadline goes down? You're paying for it. Which means your customers are.
With less than two weeks until the 1 October deadline for a strike at US East Coast and Gulf ports by 85,000 members of the International Longshoremen Association (ILA) two top container lines have announced surcharges that are effective from mid-October.
CMA CGM said it would charge an additional $1,500 per teu from all origin ports to US East Coast and Gulf ports effective from 11 October. For exports from US East Coast Gulf ports the surcharge for dry and tank containers would be $800 per twenty-footer, $1,000 per forty-footer, and $1,266 per forty-foot container. For reefer exports a $1,000 per twenty-footer and $1,500 per forty-foot container would be levied.
Meanwhile Hapag-Lloyd added to shipping’s list of acronyms with the announcement of a Work Disruption Surcharge or WDS from 18 October. The $1,000 per teu WDS would be charged on all imports to US East Coast and Gulf ports from all ports in North Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent, Oceania and Latin America.
How much cargo are we talking?
Oh, a bunches.
...According to a report earlier this week by HSBC Global Research Gulf and East Coast ports handled for 55.5% of US container imports year-to-date and accounted for 8% of container volumes globally.
The report said a strike would particularly impact imports from European and Latin American origins which the reports said would be left stranded due to a lack of viable alternatives to handle such large volumes at either Mexican or Canadian East Coast ports.
STRANDED
That's a terrifying word.
With such a potential threat to the U.S. economy looming on the horizon, does the president have any power to avoid a disaster of monumental proportions?
A president can invoke the federal Taft-Hartley Act, which gives him the authority to order an 80-day cooling-off period while everyone stays on the job.
Last year, during the West Coast strikes, Biden had Labor Secretary Julie Su involved in negotiating a last-minute deal.
This could easily be even bigger stakes. What's the administration doing to ward off an economic, $5B - with a "B" - per day catastrophe?
BREAKING REPORT: Biden / Harris administration FAILS TO ACT on massive Port strike..
— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) September 19, 2024
JP Morgan analysis reveals shutting down the ports is a $5 BILLION / DAY problem that will CRUSH the economy..
DO THEY DO ANYTHING RIGHT? pic.twitter.com/xzx7Icw6y0
Biden does not intend to invoke a federal law to prevent a port strike on the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico if dockworkers fail to secure a new labor contract by an Oct. 1 deadline, an administration official said on Tuesday.
...“We’ve never invoked Taft-Hartley to break a strike and are not considering doing so now,” the Biden administration official told Reuters.
Lots of people yelling "HELP, HELP, HELP!!!"
...The National Retail Federation on Tuesday led a group of 177 trade associations representing retailers like Walmart, manufacturers, farmers, auto makers and truckers in calling on Biden to help reach a resolution.
Talking about an awful lot of area and a lot of ports.
Strikes at our ports are looming and Biden is refusing to use FEDERAL LAW to stop it.
— .@SerendipityDizl (@SerendipityDizl) September 18, 2024
One can only imagine what this will do to our supply chain. Everything from medicines to incidentals will be negatively impacted.#TrumpVance2024ToSave America pic.twitter.com/ND6GE5mzZA
But I guess POTATUS has other things to do.
Like shiv Harris?
Bingley and I think that's playing into this, cynical as it may sound.
Either way, strike three happens, and we're all out.
BEEGE UPDATE: As Brother Bingley notes down in the comments, we are also scheduled for a government shutdown on the 30th if that group doesn't get their act together.
That might be the good news if you think about it...once you stop laughing.
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