Port Strike May Halt Supply Chains

AI goes corporate, The Govt vs. Ozempic, Russia and Ukraine war almost done?

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Business

Strike in the Port Could Cause Big Problems

Some companies have made other arrangements, but who will pay the price?

Ship Shipping GIF by The Guardian

Many U.S. companies are scrambling to change their plans ahead of a threatened October 1st strike from East and Gulf Coast port workers.

These companies have imported early, have shifted goods to the West Coast, and even have put cargo on pricey flights instead. 

Kenneth Sanchez, CEO of Chesapeake Specialty Products, didn’t mince words, saying “this is just another headache after everything else we’ve been dealing with.” 

There is concern that this strike could jam supply chains and reignite inflation once again… just five weeks before Election Day nonetheless. Like most strikes, this one is due to the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) union, which represents 45,000 port workers, and the U.S. Maritime Alliance employer group reaching an impasse in their renewal talks due to compensation. 

This comes on the heels of an ongoing strike by 30,000 machinists at Boeing, which is being felt in the aircraft maker’s supplier network. Economists at Oxford Economics estimate that the two strikes, in conjunction, could reduce payroll growth by 100,00 jobs even if they just stretch beyond two weeks. 

U.S. imports saw multi-year highs in both July and August. Companies are rushing in goods before October 1st, to avoid having cargo stuck.

To provide perspective on the challenges of this potential strike: there are 42 container ships currently scheduled to arrive at the Port of New York and New Jersey, one of the biggest ports involved in this dispute. Imagine if they don’t arrive by October 1st? That creates a real logjam. In fact, 13 of those ships are already scheduled to NOT arrive before October 1st. This can create some real issues… which maybe helps lead to a quick resolution? 

Around the Water Cooler:

🛫 Southwest Airlines cutting 200 flights a week!

🤣 FTX Fraudster Caroline Ellison gets 2-years, forfeits $11 billion.

We want to hear from you! 

Tell us about the funniest thing that’s ever happened to you at work and we may feature it in a future newsletter. Anonymously of course. Tell us here!

Politics

Uncle Sam vs. Ozempic

Are pharma companies being to greedy? Gasp!

Go Weight Loss GIF by Team Kennedy

Ozempic has become the new “diet” craze in this country… but because of that popularity, is Novo Nordisk now price gouging? That’s what the government wants to know.

Novo Nordisk’s CEO, Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, had to testify Tuesday and explain to senators why the drug is much cheaper in other countries. Senator Bernie Sanders is the chair of the Senate health committee and provided data showing that the drug sells for hundreds of dollars less per month in other countries, such as France, Canada, Germany and the U.K. Sanders accused Novo Nordisk, a Danish company, of being greedy.

“Treat the American people the same way that you treat people all over the world,” Sanders said. “Stop ripping us off.”

Jorgensen, defending himself, explained that more than 80% of U.S. patients with insurance pay less than $25 per prescription and that the price that Novo Nordisk receives from sales has declined by nearly 40% in recent years, due to rebates they pay to industry middlemen who negotiate the prices. Jorgensen blamed the American health care system for why patients have to pay such high prices in this country.

However Yale University published a study earlier this year that found that Ozempic could be profitably made for less than $5 a month, compared to its list price of $969 for a month’s supply. Yikes!

But Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), a physician, did come to Jorgensen’s defense, saying the company “is not the villain in this story, they’re a hero.”

They might be a foreign company, but jacking up prices to take advantage of an opportunity seems to be the American way.

Around the Hill:

📂 Special counsel has new evidence against Trump for Jan. 6th

🥊 Ted Cruz fighting for political survival in Texas.

Finance

The DOJ is Going After Visa

They have a stranglehold on your debit cards.

Visa Tarjeta GIF by Banco LAFISE Nicaragua

The Justice Department (DOJ) is back at it, this time with their sights set on Visa. They filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, alleging that Visa has maintained an illegal monopoly over the U.S. debit card market.

According to the complaint, more than 60% of debit card transactions in the U.S. run on Visa’s network, which allows them to charge over $7 billion in fees each year for processing those transactions. 

But that alone does not make a company a monopoly. The DOJ is also alleging that Visa has illegally insulated itself from competition, allowing themselves to become a monopoly. For example: Visa uses exclusionary agreements on merchants and banks using its debit card services, which allows it to lock up debit card transaction volumes and “smother smaller, lower-priced competitors.”

Visa has obviously denied these allegations. Following the news, their stock price slid by more than 4.3%.

The DOJ has already gone after Google this year and now have their sights set on Visa.

From the Street:

💰 How ETF managers are approaching Gold and Fixed Income.

📉 Mortgage Rates hit a 2-year low!

World News

The War in Ukraine May Be Winding Down

At least that’s what Zelensky Says.

Wink Ukraine GIF by GIPHY News

Good news: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that their war with Russia could end sooner than some people think. He told ABC News, “I think we are closer to peace than we think,” which sounds optimistic.

Zelensky is in the U.S. this week to speak at the United Nations General Assembly to present his “victory plan” to his Western allies, including President Biden. 

The plan includes further weapon donations, diplomatic efforts to force Russia to agree to peace, and holding Moscow accountable for its full-scale invasion in 2022. 

He also told ABC News that it’s not about negotiating with Russia, but rather “a bridge to a diplomatic way out, to stop the war.” He’s also expected to request, once again, that Western countries allow Ukraine to ease restrictions on the use of long-range missiles, which could be used to strike deep into Russia. This has been a point of contention from both sides of this war. 

President Biden said on Sunday that he has not yet decided whether to give the green light or not. Zelensky will also meet with Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump while here. 

As nice as it would be to just have the war come to a peaceful close, that’s not really realistic. Petr Pavel, the president of the Czech Republic, said that a defeat “will simply not happen” for either side, and that the end of the conflict would be “somewhere in the middle.”

Pavel said the most likely outcome would be that a part of Ukraine would remain under Russian occupation for a number of years.

What’s the Latest:

🧨 Lebanon strikes preparing for ground offensive.

🎤 Biden’s final UN Speech.

Tech

AI is Heading to the Office

Google is taking their AI to work.

google GIF

AI is going corporate, as Google is making Gemini AI a core part of its Workspace productivity suite. Google announced that the standalone Gemini app will be included in Workspace Business, Enterprise and Frontline plans sometime before the end of the calendar year, replacing the need to purchase a separate Gemini add-on. This would allow the chatbot to be available to millions of users. 

Gemini will be treated the same as the other applications, such as Docs, Sheets and Gmail, etc. It, reportedly, won’t use a company’s data, generated responses, or user prompts to train or improve its AI model. Workspace Administrators will all also be able to manage if Gemini stores user prompts and the AI generated responses, and for how long. Though that function apparently is not currently available, as Google said that is coming “soon.”

Just one step closer to “Terminator” eventually becoming a reality!

What to Know:

✌ OpenAI CTO announces she’s leaving the company.

👀 Paypal to allow the buying of Crypto in US.

Sports

College Cribs

Travis Hunter is not living like college athletes of years past!

Colorado’s Travis Hunter has been winning on the field - he forced a fumble in overtime this past Saturday to finish off the Buff’s come-from-behind victory against Baylor.

But he’s also winning off the field, too. Hunter is making enough money as a student-athlete to buy his mother her dream home… after he already bought her a new car. Hunter uploaded a video to his YouTube earlier this year of surprising his mom with a new five-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom home in Savannah, Georgia.

Hunter, who is only 21 years old, has the sixth-highest name, image and likeness (NIL) value among current college athletes, which is estimated at $2.4 million, according to On3 Sports. The only other football players they have ahead of Hunter are his teammate Shedeur Sanders and Arch Manning, both of whom come from NFL families. Hunter, however, has the notoriety solely for his play.

Hunter plays on both sides of the football, rarely sitting out a play, and has been Colorado’s best weapon on offense and best defensive back on defense. He is projected to be a first round pick, regardless of which position he plays and has also shot up the odds board, moving from 33-1 to win the Heisman to now 16-1.

Hunter, however, is already a star before even making it to the Heisman ceremony or NFL. Nick Saban had previously claimed that Hunter was paid $1 million just to go to Colorado in the first place. 

Houston Texans defensive coordinator Matt Burke just spoke last week about how college football, through the addition of NIL, is preparing these young kids for when they enter the NFL and (now continue to) make big money. 

Roger Goodell even discussed it on a podcast (The Triple Option) recently, saying: “It brings on a lot of responsibility at an earlier age, and I think it probably puts a lot of responsibility on colleges to make sure that kids understand that and they’re prepared for that. It changes the dynamic. The zeroes get pretty big, and the impact when you make bad decisions is pretty significant for a young man and their family, so they need to be prepared for that.”

Goodell also acknowledged how this could help with the transition to the NFL. Ironically, college football might be doing a better job of preparing guys for the NFL off the field than on the field these days.

But NIL is another step in college football getting these kids ready for the next level. Many ask why the NFL doesn’t invest in one of those many failed spring leagues and turn it into their minor league? Well, because they don’t need to. College football has always been a free minor league for them - and even more so now.

Top Stories:

👋 UNLV loses 3-0 WB because they won’t pay him the 100k they promised.

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