Joe Biden's economy is a disaster, but that doesn't mean it can't get worse.
A couple of little publicized commerce/transport events make new problems, specifically, shortages of consumer goods, all but certain.
Start with what's going on around the Saudi Arabian peninsula, where Houthi rebel rocket and drone attacks on ten commercial ships has reached crisis levels, and major shipping lines, such as Maersk, have opted to go around the horn of Africa the way Magellan had to do, in order to deliver their cargo loads to Europe and beyond.
According to the trade publication Insurance Journal:
Shipping in the Red Sea is grinding to a halt with oil tankers idling and container vessels rerouting around Africa as violence linked to the Israel-Hamas war threatens to undermine the global economy.
undefinedTwo European oil and gas giants said Monday that their tankers would avoid waters off the coast of Yemen — an unavoidable waypoint for ships using the Suez Canal to cut between Europe and Asia. They join major container shippers who pulled out of the area last week as Iran-backed Houthi militants stepped up attacks in support of Hamas.
Jazz Shaw at Hot Air points out that the plan of action announced by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is a pretty weak one, lots of ships shooting down rockets and drones, amounting to swatting cockroaches as he compared it, instead of going for the nest. Biden, see, doesn't want to anger the Houthis' sponsor, Iran, he noted.
Meanwhile, down at the border in the Del Rio sector, cross-border commercial train traffic is being halted so that Border Patrol agents can give the crush of unvetted illegal migrants speedier customer service, known as "processing" so that they will be free to move about the country sooner.
According to Beege Welborn at Hot Air:
The Border Patrol issued a statement Sunday evening that, as of 8 a.m. Monday morning they were suspending all rail traffic through the Eagle Pass and El Paso railway crossing bridges.
Statement from CBP on Suspension of Rail Operations in Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas
“CBP is continuing to surge all available resources to safely process migrants in response to increased levels of migrant encounters at the Southwest Border, fueled by smugglers peddling disinformation to prey on vulnerable individuals. After observing a recent resurgence of smuggling organizations moving migrants through Mexico via freight trains, CBP is taking additional actions to surge personnel and address this concerning development, including in partnership with Mexican authorities.
“Beginning December 18, 2023 at 8:00 AM local time, CBP’s Office of Field Operations will temporarily suspend operations at the international railway crossing bridges in Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas in order to redirect personnel to assist the U.S. Border Patrol with taking migrants into custody. CBP will continue to prioritize our border security mission as necessary in response to this evolving situation…
Closing down the bridge at Eagle Pass takes one of the most heavily used and important trade routes in the entire country out of the picture. As Eagle Pass likes to brag, out of the over 450 airports, seaports and other border crossings in the US? It was 34th.
Eagle Pass is ranked number 10 for international imports and exports by value when up against just the border crossings. That’s some huge numbers which have come to a screeching halt.
Welborn has a slew of charts and graphs showing the impact from this shutdown of commerce owing to the Biden administration's priorities to put illegal foreigners, mostly military-aged young men, first, not the U.S. economy.
Aside from coming shortages based on goods not getting to port, the BBC reports that there's also this:
Attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea risk pushing up the price of oil and other goods, analysts have warned.
Several firms have paused shipments through the route after vessels were attacked by Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The world's second largest shipping line, Maersk, said on Tuesday that it would reroute some of its vessels around Africa's Cape of Good Hope.
Inflation is caused by money-printing and therefore hard to get rid of, but there's no doubt that a bottleneck in the supply chain will force a temporary increase in higher prices as goods become dearer and money becomes, by default, more abundant. Inflation is always too much money chasing too few goods, so fewer goods coming in -- from car parts, to produce, to baby products, to school supplies, to farm equipment, to fertilizer, to tech goods -- is going to be a problem.
Who is running the show here that U.S. economic priorities are so poorly placed? Instead of telling illegals to stand outside and wait, the Biden administration puts their convenience first to the detriment of the entire country. Combine that with the shipping issue in the Middle East and it all amounts to our economy in distress and we will feel it.
Illegals will get the passage they crave but the rest of us will deal with shortages and higher prices which will be entirely outside the scope of the Federal Reserve to control, meaning, it's back to the bad old days of supply crunch, empty shelves and soaring prices.
What a gift that amounts to from the Biden administration to the American people. Merry Christmas, America, Joe Biden's got some coal for you for under your tree except that it's sitting at the bottom of a ship somewhere around the Horn of Africa and unlike the illegals, you're going to have to wait.