Earlier this week we took one of our cars to be serviced at the dealership. There were no cars in their lot. We were told they had no inventory. We’re only a month or so from when the major auto manufacturers shut production down for a couple of weeks while they prepare for the new model year. I wonder what’s going to happen with layoffs then.
I’ve also been informed that there’s a nationwide shortage of contrast dye in the country’s hospitals.
With the ongoing and recurring lockdowns in China, these shortages will only get worse.
Contrast dye shortage is true. IIRC, about 70% of the world supply comes from Shanghai and the other 30% from someplace in Germany. High chance I am misremembering but pretty sure about China number.
Steve
I just traded a 2 year old, 22K miles 911 for 90% of the original purchase price. That’s extraordinary. No cars; they wanted mine so bad. Porsche dealers are quoting 1 year lead times. I know, first world problems. But this extends throughout the car market.
I don’t know how many times I have to say it. We never considered costs when covid became the zero risk tolerance issue………all for political gain.
Steve makes the cousin point, we have too damned much reliance on China. Not exactly a friend. Canada? OK. Mexico? Mmmm. etc etc
The globalists are horrible people. They set this up. And its not party specific. But who was creating waves? The mean tweet guy.
So he had to be destroyed.
Is he correct? I don’t know. No one knows. But if he is, we are in recession.
https://realinvestmentadvice.com/high-inflation-may-already-be-behind-us/
He could be right. We’ll know in due course. I suspect we’re already in recession.
I think that just as they talk about “discouraged workers” dropping off the employment calculations there are discouraged buyers. My understanding is that trucks and autos are presently selling well above MSRP. How do you measure demand when dealers sell every vehicle they receive from the manufacturers? It sounds to me like there may be “pent-up demand” he’s not taking into account.
Also aren’t people less likely to buy durables when they’re worried about nondurables?
We leased a Subaru Ascent (3-row SUV) three years ago. We had never leased before but we did it because we needed a bigger vehicle until, at least, our oldest went to college this fall.
Three years later, turning the vehicle in is financially dumb. we can pay off the lease and then turn around and sell it for at least $5k over the sell off amount. But we’ll probably keep it another year because we still need a second car and the smaller vehicles we are interested in are expensive and difficult to find new or used.
On the other hand our retirement accounts and investments have taken a beating. The crazy housing market seems to have peaked or is peaking. I’m thankful we are in a stable situation where we can weather a financial storm – at least for a while.
It’s times like these that remind me of uncertainty and that the future does not guarantee anything.
Also, my oldest goes to college in the fall and then kid #2 next year. So of course Biden it trial ballooning debt relief. We planned ahead and saved so we will be fine but it still pisses me off that they are considering a policy that will arbitrarily benefit people and families in their mid-20’s and older, but doesn’t do shit for anyone else. I wonder if they realize how this will actually play out politically.