Shipping
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Demand, Not Ocean Carriers, Causing Supply Chain Problems March 16, 2022
Congress has a golden opportunity to solve the delays in the international supply chain, but so far, they are missing the mark. The legislation passed by the House of Representatives takes the wrong approach to shipping reform. The good news is the S...
Foundations Should Disclose Investments and De-Politicize Giving March 03, 2022
An increasing number of private foundations are inserting sociopolitical considerations into their investment portfolios, just as many already do in their grantmaking. Those that choose to do so should be prepared to weather any public scrutiny that ...
Won’t Drill Baby Won’t Drill March 01, 2022
Predicting the outcome after days of war in Ukraine is a fool’s errand; devastation, fierce resistance, or a fragile peace lurks around every corner. What we can say about the confrontation is what Ukrainian official Svitlana Krakovska uttered at a U...
How We End the Shipping Crisis February 08, 2022
Last month, White House staff claimed that the worst of our ocean shipping crisis was behind us and that the largest bottlenecks at America’s ports were no more. Citing the improved inventories of big box stores like Walmart, some prematurely claimed...
How America's Supply Chains Got Railroaded February 08, 2022
When the Union Pacific Railroad closed its Global 3 Intermodal Ramp outside of Chicago in 2019, Union Pacific marketing executive Kenny Rocker promised that closing the facility would bring “more consistent, reliable and predictable service” to shipp...
Jones Act Lobby Misdeals 'Homeland Security' Card January 14, 2022
When the facts don’t work, try appeals to national or “homeland” security.That seems to be the tactic of the Jones Act lobby, which has been increasingly hard-pressed in recent years to make the case that the 101-year-old Jones Act — which requires ...
The Supply Chain's Inconvenient Truth December 10, 2021
The entire world has turned their eyes to the “Supply Chain.” It is a term that seems rather intuitive and easy to understand on its face. We all buy goods. We all see Amazon drivers and UPS and FedEx drivers delivering packages. We think this is our...
$4 Trillion 'Reconciliation' Bill Reflects Bipartisan Legacy of Reckless Spending December 08, 2021
As conventional wisdom and headline Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data would put it, it’s been a whole generation since the United States last passed a federal budget surplus. The year was 2000, and the outgoing Clinton administration, buoyed by ...
'Yellowstone' Appeals to a Nation of Soft Hands December 08, 2021
My wife, who spent much of her childhood in Northern California — and whose grandparents owned orchard land and kept horses and other animals — always laughs at me during our yearly trip to the county fair. The reason is my fear of walking past the h...
As Buttigieg Eyes POTUS Run, DOT Flounders December 06, 2021
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg returned from parental leave into what should have been a code red situation for his department. The United States is embroiled in the most severe shipping and supply chain crisis in recent memory, requiring...
Text, History, and Tradition Will Likely Govern the Resolution of Dobbs December 01, 2021
This week the U.S. Supreme Court will consider Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a challenge to the abortion standards that the Court created in the final quarter of the twentieth century in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Th...
Biden Unclogs a Port—Well, Partly October 18, 2021
Gridlock ‘R’ Us. And while President Biden has yet to eliminate the choke points (Manchin, Sinema) blocking the flow of crucial legislation on Capitol Hill, he did manage to bull through another choke point yesterday: the Port of Los Angeles, through...
Confronting the Supply Chain Crisis October 14, 2021
For a generation, the Long Beach and Los Angeles harbors in California handled more than 40 percent of all container cargo headed into the US and epitomized the power of a globalizing economy. Today, the ships—mostly from Asia—still dock, but they mu...
Time to Address Ocean Carrier Greed October 11, 2021
This summer Maersk — the world's biggest container shipping company — announced record profits for the second quarter of 2021. Throughout the pandemic, their peers in the ocean shipping industry have achieved similar levels of success by price gougin...
The Great Supply Shock We Brought Upon Ourselves September 23, 2021
At least once over the past 18 months, when you tried to order something online or visited a retail store, you have probably experienced something Americans are not supposed to feel: scarcity. Shortages of all kinds have lingered and even worsened ov...
Americans Have No Idea What the Supply Chain Is September 22, 2021
At this point, the maddeningly unpredictable Delta variant has changed the expected course of the coronavirus pandemic so much that it can be hard to know exactly what you’re waiting for, or if you should continue waiting at all. Is something like be...
The Jones Act is Supported by Myths. But Its Negative Impact is Very Real. August 31, 2021
The federal Jones Act has shaped — and burdened — maritime transportation in the U.S. for more than 100 years. Officially Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, it dictates that goods transported between two U.S. ports must be carried on ship...
Don’t Force a One-size-fits-all Framework On Social Investors August 26, 2021
Interest in environmental, social, and governance-themed, or ESG, investing has seen significant growth in recent years, but it has been matched by persistent complaints from some market participants. Chief among these is a lack of clear definitions ...
People Liked Malls August 25, 2021
Since 2005, Amazon has changed how virtually every American shops. That February, the company launched Prime, the first-of-its-kind, lightning-fast subscription delivery service that now has an estimated 147 million members in the United States. Alon...
Now is the Time to Upgrade Our Nation's Recycling Infrastructure August 13, 2021
Improving our nation’s infrastructure is a top priority for cities and towns across the country. As a mayor, I applaud efforts by Congress and the Biden administration to make much-needed repairs to our roads, bridges, rail, and transit systems. But ...
The Warehouse Archipelago August 10, 2021
Every six seconds, the sorting machine would spit out bags of candy as Rebecca Wells waited, robot-like.She had to grab the bags, weighing up to nine pounds, stuff them into shipping boxes, and then feed the boxes into a taping machine.The bags comin...
Ever Given Proved the Economy Runs on Shipping Containers April 06, 2021
Take a look around you.Perhaps you’re snacking on a banana, sipping some coffee or sitting in front of your computer and taking a break from work to read this article. Most likely, those goods – as well as your smartphone, refrigerator and virtually ...
Reform Could Offer USPS Enduring Fiscal Health April 05, 2021
Fiscal struggles at the U.S Postal Service (USPS) are well-known and documented. In fiscal year 2021, the agency’s net loss is expected to grow to $9.7 billion because of persistently high costs and lower projected revenue. Fortunately, leadership wi...
Why Ships Keep Crashing March 29, 2021
When a big jet airplane crashes, it almost always makes headlines around the world, and for good reason: Fatal passenger accidents are extremely rare. Right now, though, the eyes of the world are on the Ever Given, the massive container ship still st...
What Should a New Navy Secretary Do? March 19, 2021
President Biden’s cabinet confirmation hearings have in large measure been remarkably uneventful. The Senate has confirmed Avril Hanes as Director of Central Intelligence (84-10), Lloyd Austin as Secretary of Defense (93-2), and Antony Blinken as Sec...
