03/29/2024

News

Ports Gridlock Reshapes the Supply Chain

A survey of 138 shippers last week by the Journal of Commerce showed that 65% said they planned to ship less cargo through the U.S. West Coast through 2016, with a similar percentage planning to permanently reroute some cargo.

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Racial Wealth Gaps: What a Difference 25 Years Doesn’t Make

The findings are the latest to show that while America’s economy is finally picking up steam again six years after the Great Recession, many black and Hispanic Americans—and indeed, much of the nation’s middle-class—are being left behind.

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Gas’s Drop Drives US Into Deflation Territory

Driven by a tumble in oil prices since mid-2014, the consumer-price index fell 0.1% in January from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the first year-over-year decrease since October 2009. Prices fell 0.7% from December.

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Austin Beats San Francisco in Savills’ Tech City Metrics

San Francisco may have cool startups and some of the biggest names in the technology business, but when compared with 11 other global cities with strong tech clusters, the city that is home to Silicon Valley under-performs in key metrics like business environment, quality of life and property prices, according to a new report by property consultants Savills .

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Port Delays Starting to Damage Businesses

As employers at the ports along the West Coast on Monday refused to unload ships for the sixth day out of the past 10, their nine-month contract dispute with port workers is becoming a significant business problem.

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U.S. Retail Sales Fell 0.8% in January

The retail restraint is somewhat surprising given that the average household is expected to save hundreds of dollars this year on gas that averaged $2.23 a gallon on Thursday, down from $3.32 a year ago, according to auto club AAA. Americans appear to be saving the money they’re not spending at the pump, or using any excess funds on services that don’t show up in the retail-sales report.

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Oil Boom a “Game-Changer” on Trade Deficit

Petroleum imports accounted for less than 20% of the nation’s trade deficit last year, down from more than 40% only five years earlier, according to figures for 2014 released Thursday.

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US GDP Growth Slows to 2.6% in Fourth Quarter

U.S. economic growth retreated to a modest pace in the final months of 2014, underscoring obstacles facing the recovery as troubles mount abroad.

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Too Bad Biotechs Can’t Cure Tort Abuse

In some recent merger cases, shareholder plaintiffs have based their suits on the claim, among others, that the venture capitalists on the board who constituted a majority had conspired to sell the company at a discount to the detriment of minority shareholders. Venture capitalists aren’t often accused of undue generosity, but especially not to buyers. San Diego-based Trius Therapeutics, which was sold to Cubist Pharmaceuticals well over a year ago, was sued in both Delaware and California. Though the suit was dismissed in Delaware, the case grinds on in California.

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US, Mexico Increasingly Competing for Farm Labor

The majority of hired farmworkers in the U.S., estimated at around 1 million, are Mexican, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In California, Mexican migrants account for 90% of hired workers, according to independent estimates. But the pool of Mexican agricultural workers is steadily declining, with no indication that it will be reversed, according to J. Edward Taylor, professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Davis.

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Maine Gov. LePage Wants to Tax Big Nonprofits

Mr. LePage, who just began his second term, would lower top individual and corporate income taxes, broaden the number of goods and services covered by the sales tax and offer tax credits for low-income residents. He said his plan would make Maine more competitive and attract more young families to the nation’s grayest state

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Views of Economy Brighten, WSJ/NBC Poll Finds

An upswing in the U.S. economy has contributed to a surge in economic optimism but provided no similar improvement in the standing of the nation’s political leaders, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows.

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Fastest Asia-US Shipping Route? Canada’s Ports

Shipping companies are seeking the fastest route to move Asian goods to the U.S. Midwest, with a growing share of U.S.-bound cargo arriving first in Canada. The increased business suggests Canada’s efforts to exploit some natural geographic advantages by spending billions of dollars on its West Coast trade infrastructure are paying off.

Congestion, labor tensions and tax concerns at U.S. ports have also spurred some shippers to look north. . . Canada’s two big Pacific ports have a natural geographic advantage: relative proximity. Prince Rupert, for instance, is the closest North American port to Asia due to the curvature of the Earth, and is more than 68 hours closer to Shanghai by boat than Los Angeles, according to its port authority. It also boasts one of the world’s deepest natural ice-free harbors.

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U.S. Payrolls in November Grew 321,000; Jobless Rate 5.8%

Nonfarm payrolls rose a seasonally adjusted 321,000 in November, the strongest month of hiring since January 2012, the Labor Department said Friday. Hiring was broad across industries, led by gains in the professional and business-services sector.

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West Coast Port Delays Weigh on Retailers

Shipping snafus on the West Coast caused by problems at two major ports are starting to take a bite out of retail.

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