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Axios AM
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By
Mike Allen
·Oct 14, 2021
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Happy Thursday. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,139 words ... 4½ minutes. Edited by Zachary Basu.  Today at 12:30 p.m., please join Axios' Russell Contreras for a virtual event on how schools are equipping students for modern prosperity. Sign up here.
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1 big thing: Global energy crisis
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Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
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An energy crisis around the world is hitting
households and manufacturers that were already struggling to recover
from the pandemic, Axios' Felix Salmon and Andrew Freedman write. - Why it matters: This is a collision of supply shortages, especially from China ... inflation ... slowing growth ... labor shortages ... Russia's continued geopolitical muscle-flexing ... and fear.
- "Pressures on the energy system are not going to relent in the coming decades," the International Energy Agency wrote in a World Energy Outlook released yesterday.
The big picture: Around
the world, authorities are scrambling to fill a power supply gap,
triggering market wobbles on worries that rising energy costs will stoke
inflation and curtail recovery, Reuters reports. - Power prices
have surged to records, driven by shortages in Asia and Europe. China's
energy crisis is expected to last the rest of the year.
- U.S. oil closed above $80 a barrel this week for the first time since 2014. (The Wall Street Journal)
What's happening:
A combination of weather-related issues (many of which are related to
climate change), unexpected demand and planned outages has sent natural
gas and coal prices through the roof. - China's energy shortage has caused high-tech manufacturing centers to close their doors.
- India is in even worse shape, with much less ability to bring new power sources online.
- In the U.K., the surge in natural gas prices saw many companies go bust, while the EU has been reminded of how uncomfortably reliant it is on Vladimir Putin's Russia for its energy needs.
The big picture: Inflation is bad. Energy-price inflation is terrible. - This is stirring memories of 1970s-style stagflation, where rising prices are combined with anemic growth.
- The global energy transition to renewables is well under way, but hasn't come soon enough.
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2.  Inflation's long list
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A cargo ship passes under the Bayonne Bridge in New Jersey yesterday. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
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Inflation is hitting levels not seen in 13 years — annual pace: up 5.4% — as tangled supply lines continue creating global havoc, AP reports. - U.S. consumer prices rose 0.4% in September from August.
- The annual increase in the consumer price index matched readings in June and July as the highest since 2008.
 Prices were higher for houses, rent, food, gas, electricity, furniture, new cars, TVs and restaurant meals.
- Children's shoes
are up 11.9% — a record-high gain in data that stretches back to the
1950s. Most shoes are imported, and are likely caught in supply
bottlenecks.
 The cost of hotel rooms, car rentals, and airline tickets fell, as the Delta spike limited travel plans.
- Clothing prices also dropped.
Between the lines: Higher prices are outstripping pay gains workers can command from many businesses. - Average hourly wages rose 4.6% in September from a year earlier — a healthy increase, but not enough to keep up with inflation.
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3. Our weekly map: Don't look now
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Data: N.Y. Times. Cartogram: Kavya Beheraj/Axios For the first time since early August, the U.S. is averaging fewer than 100,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, Axios' Sam Baker writes. - Why it matters: The
U.S. has blown moments like this before. But the prospect of
controlling the virus — and being able to safely put pandemic life
behind us — is once again within reach.
The virus' strongest remaining foothold
is in the West and upper Midwest: Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota,
Idaho, Utah, Minnesota and Wisconsin are all among the 10 states with
the most cases per capita. - Hawaii and Connecticut have the lowest caseloads, each with an average of just 12 cases per 100,000 people.
The bottom line: If the U.S. finally contains the virus, new mask mandates would be less necessary.
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A message from Bank of America
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Providing access to education
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The coronavirus and its impact on society shed light on many long-standing economic and racial inequalities, including in America’s schools.
Watch to learn more
about how philanthropic grants from Bank of America are helping
nonprofits across the country work to increase access to education.
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4. Pics of the day: Oldest rocketman
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Photo: LM Otero/AP Watch a 35-second video of the "splashdown" in the West Texas desert, with Bezos opening the capsule.
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5. Biden's Moderna threat
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
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A top Biden official publicly threatened Moderna
with more aggressive government action if it doesn't voluntarily
provide enough vaccines to the global initiative COVAX at not-for-profit
prices, Axios' Caitlin Owens reports. - Why it matters: While low-income countries are desperate for more doses, Moderna has been supplying almost exclusively to wealthy nations.
"Do not underestimate
the resolve of the United States government in addressing these
issues," David Kessler, chief science officer of the administration's
COVID-19 response, said at an intense panel event. - "I think these companies understand our authorities and understand we would not be afraid to use them," he added.
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel recently wrote:
"We are committed to doubling our manufacturing and expanding supply
even further until our vaccine is no longer needed in low-income
countries."
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6. Stat du jour
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
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87% of U.S. teenagers have iPhones, a survey of 10,000 young people by investment bank Piper Sandler concluded. - Why it matters: The
economy is mobile, as the next generation of consumers shops for
clothes, watches TV and meets romantic partners almost exclusively on
their phones, Axios' Erica Pandey writes.
Other findings from the survey, which covered 44 states: - Teens care about sustainability: 51% of respondents had purchased secondhand items. 62% had sold things they own.
- 14% of teens consume plant-based meat, with the fake meat giants Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat taking the bulk of the market share.
- 35% say Snapchat is their favorite app, 30% say TikTok, and 22% say Instagram.
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7.  Washington Football Team fights female alumni
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"Lawyers representing the Washington Football Team
offered a financial settlement this year in exchange for the silence of
female former team employees who allege they endured sexual harassment
while working there," The Washington Post reports. - Emily Applegate, a former marketing coordinator who spoke out about her experience last year, called the offer "disrespectfully low."
Context: The
rants that doomed former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden surfaced in
650,000+ emails reviewed by the NFL during an investigation into
working conditions at the Washington team. Nearly 40 former team employees
were told that in exchange for the money, "they would have to sign
nondisclosure agreements and agree to stop doing news interviews and
posting on social media about their experiences while working for the
team," The Post said. - The team didn't immediately comment.
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8. 1 fun thing: Ina's Lego reveal
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Photo: Ina Fried/Axios Voilà! This manual typewriter, complete with classic black/red ribbon. - The 2,079-piece set is, alas, "temporarily out of stock" on Lego's site.
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A message from Bank of America
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Community college: an engine for upward mobility
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The City Colleges of Chicago are an engine for upward mobility for 70,000 students.
To ensure that the students could keep learning and preparing for
their careers amid the impacts of the coronavirus, Bank of America
provided a $250,000 grant to the City Colleges of Chicago Foundation.
Read more. |
to its three-day losing streak on a 
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