Two items: The cost of moving a sea container from Asia to a west coast port is now hovering at $17,000, up from $3,800 last year. Typically in the US, shipping costs add 2.35 to 3.80% to the cost of an item by the time it hit’s the store shelves.
With the increase in container costs and the trucking shortage,we are now facing 10.50 to 16.98% and that is **IF** they can get the backlog they have now, off the ships and in distribution. Also, the retail mark up on shipping costs is typically 1.5-2.25. So we are looking at $1.16-$1.24 on a 1$ item. That is **IF** they can clear the backlog. If they can’t (they haven’t even identified the real problem, so there is no chance of the problem getting solved) the costs will continue to rise as the ships sit parked at anchorage.
The meter is running as they say, those ships aren’t owned, they are financed and the bills keep coming whether the ships are moving or not. Those costs must be accounted for and passed on to the consumers, the shipping companies aren’t government owned afterall. Not government owned….yet. There are already rustlings in the leftist under brush about a “potential need to nationalise the shipping and distribution network”, as if they can nationalise foreign owned and flagged ships.(sarc, don’t worry, I’m sure they can find a way).
Item two: It is a rule of thumb, that for every Trillion dollars added to the debt, the value of the Dollar is deminished by $.05. Since spring 2020, Congress has increased the debt by 7.9 Trillion. Back of the napkin math says the real rate of inflation is 39.5%. Read the ever increasing articles pointing out that the Fed is in a panic and the real inflation rate is much higher than the 18.2% they are claiming.
So, in short, my investment strategy will remain the same-beans and bullets.
Anyone starting to prep now is so far behind the curve that it will be almost impossible to adequately prepare now unless they have a significant amount of money.