| Axios AM
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By
Mike Allen
·Oct 08, 2021
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Happy Friday! Smart Brevity™ count: 1,152 words ... 4½ minutes. Edited by Zachary Basu.
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1 big thing: Era of depletion and disruption
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
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Whatever you want or need — at work, at play or at home — you're going to have to wait.' - Why it matters:
There is simply no escaping the complex web of labor, product and
service shortages unleashed by the pandemic — and this era of disruption
is nowhere close to ending, Axios' Sam Baker writes.
The Atlantic's Derek Thompson called it the "Everything Shortage." Forget about a quick, affordable weekend to unplug, unless you want to plan it a year in advance. - One Axios editor's
recent effort to find a family-sized Airbnb within a few hours' drive
of D.C. yielded only a $3,000-per-night mansion or a nicer-than-average
tent that may or may not have had access to a bathroom.
- A rental-car shortage has made longer trips unaffordable. As individual car owners try to fill the void by renting out their own wheels, it can now cost the same to rent a Ford Fiesta from an agency as it does to rent a Maserati from a guy who owns a Maserati.
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Container ships queue offshore in Long Beach, Calif., on Wednesday. Photo: Jeff Gritchen/Orange County Register via Getty Images COVID outbreaks have swept through factories all across Southeast Asia, slowing down production of clothes, shoes, electronics and furniture. - By the time those goods reach the U.S., it can take weeks for ships to be unloaded at the L.A. and Long Beach ports before waiting — again — for truck drivers to move deliveries to warehouses.
Home improvement projects might theoretically be a nice alternative to a vacation, but they'll be even more stressful than usual right now. - Would-be customers are running into shortages of large appliances, as well as long waits for repairs.
- In the market for a new mattress? Some of the nicer ones are backordered until spring — and the ones that are available now are significantly marked up.
What’s next: Analysts expect a shortage of both Thanksgiving turkeys and Christmas toys.
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2. Charted: Golden clunkers
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Data: Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index. Chart: Axios Visuals Used cars are the poster child of the pandemic economy — and prices are on the way up again, Axios Markets editor Kate Marino writes. - After two months of cooling wholesale used vehicle prices (what dealers pay), costs increased 5% in September from August levels.
- They're 27% higher on average than a year ago, according to the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index released yesterday.
Eye-popping stat: The
individual model that's seen the biggest jump this year is the 2020
Toyota Corolla 4-door sedan, with an average value of $19,450 on Oct. 1,
compared to $13,600 a year ago (43% increase).
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3.  Journalists win Nobel Peace Prize
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Ressa (L) and Muratov. Photos: Dimitrios Kambouris/TIME; Mikhail Metzel/TASS via Getty Images
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Dissident journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov won
the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of
expression, ... a precondition for democracy and lasting peace." - Ressa, who
co-founded the Philippine news site Rappler in 2012, has been
prosecuted for her critical reporting on Philippine President Rodrigo
Duterte's deadly anti-drug campaign.
- Muratov is the founder of Novaya Gazeta, described by the Nobel Committee as "the most independent newspaper in Russia today."
Between the lines:
It's the first time the Nobel has gone to journalists since 1935, when
Germany's Carl von Ossietzky won the award for his secret work exposing
his country's re-armament after World War I. Go deeper: Read the announcement.
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A message from JPMorgan Chase & Co.
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Jackeline Enriquez significantly grew her
construction clean-up business in less than 3 years. But rapid growth
has its challenges, and Jackeline needed help with critical business
skills like accounting.
Learn how a new JPMorgan Chase program helped her business grow.
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4. Pic du jour
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Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images As he arrived in Chicago yesterday, President Biden crossed his fingers when asked: "Do you support the short-term debt ceiling deal?"
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5. Elon to Austin
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A Tesla factory under construction in Austin last month. Photo: Joe White/Reuters
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced at a shareholder meeting that Tesla HQ will move from Palo Alto to Austin. Tesla plans
to increase production in California despite the relocation, which will
take time to reach full production, Axios Kierra Frazier writes. - Musk said: "Our intention is to increase output from Fremont and Giga Nevada by 50%. If you go to our Fremont factory, it's jammed."
Musk himself moved to Texas from California in December.
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6. Facebook's insider problem
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Slide released by Facebook, with the annotation:
"Although this headline emphasizes certain negative reported effects,
it could have been written to note the positive or neutral effect." While many tech firms have
loud critics, Facebook has a uniquely long roster of ex-employees who
have sounded alarms over its practices, Axios' Ina Fried writes in her weekly "Signal Boost" column. - Why it matters:
The calls keep coming from people who were once inside the building.
Such voices carry more weight than outside agitators, though none has
kickstarted large-scale Facebook reform.
The list
includes early employees, the former heads of WhatsApp, as well as
plenty of rank-and-file employees disturbed by the products the company
has built and their impact on society.
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7. Secret troop deployment
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A U.S.-made CH-47 helicopter flies the national flag last month at a
military base in Taoyuan, Taiwan. Photo: Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images
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About two-dozen U.S. special-ops troops and a
contingent of Marines have been secretly conducting training for
Taiwan's ground forces for over a year, The Wall Street Journal's Gordon
Lubold reports (subscription). - Why it matters: The
deployment is "a sign of concern within the Pentagon over Taiwan's
tactical capabilities in light of Beijing’s yearslong military buildup,"
including a record number of warplane flybys near the island earlier this week.
- Taiwan's defense minister warned
this week that tensions with China have reached a 40-year high, and
that Beijing could be ready to launch a "full-scale" invasion by 2025.
P.S. In the forthcoming edition of Foreign Affairs, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen warns of the "catastrophic" consequences of Taiwan falling: - "It would signal that in today's global contest of values, authoritarianism has the upper hand over democracy."
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8. 1 fun thing: "Squid Game" 101
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Photo: Netflix "Squid Game," the dystopian
South Korean survival drama, has "hit No. 1 in more than 90 countries,
including the U.S. — a surprise even to Netflix executives," and is on
track to become the streamer's most-watched show ever, The Wall Street
Journal reports (subscription). Axios' Jennifer A. Kingson has a quick catchup: - "Squid Game" is
a nine-episode miniseries with a "Hunger Games"-type plot, set in a
secluded world where desperate people compete in deadly children's games
to win a huge cash prize.
- One plot element
involves a toffee-style candy called dalgona, made from melted sugar and
baking soda. That's why both the candy (often sold in lollipop form)
and dalgona coffee have gone viral on TikTok. You can make the candy in
under 10 minutes, via this hot-off-the-press New York Times recipe (subscription).
Why it matters: The show — with its creepy-looking masked guards whose red costumes
are likely to be omnipresent this Halloween — points to uncomfortable
socioeconomic truths that resonate in many societies, The Times explains. - "Squid Games"
has "tapped a sense familiar to people in the United States, Western
Europe and other places, that prosperity in nominally rich countries has
become increasingly difficult to achieve, as wealth disparities widen
and home prices rise past affordable levels."
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A message from JPMorgan Chase & Co.
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Chicago baker acquires new factory with support from JPMorgan Chase
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Stephanie Hart knew she wanted to expand her business, but needed help with financial planning and business strategies.
A new JPMorgan Chase program provided her with the coaching and mentorship she needed to help acquire a factory and grow. Read Stephanie's Story. |
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