The Economy

Administrative Assistant - 82548778379
BJ Work from home.
Portland, OR 97204

Hmm - sounds like a good job.

 

When I sleep during the day I often put on five-hour long train ride-alongs from YouTube on the TV in the bedroom. My wife came home early one day and saw what was on the TV and rolled her eyes, “Jeezus. I think I’d rather have caught you watching porn.”

 

There has been a trucker shortage since there have been trucks. But for any Texas-OK SJ.com, the robot trucks have been testing out there for several years, with Orlando to be added next year. The idea is to run autonomous trucks between hubs, and drivers on local routes. One tech company I cover has a deal with International to roll out an OEM truck in 2024. Autonomous container ships are already make long test voyages, and an Australian mining company has been running crewless trains hundreds of (desolate) miles from mine to port.

 

The supply chain (and by that I mean China-to-US) usually gets a breather early in the year with Lunar New Year.

 

Protip: Get a subscription to Calm App and load up the train ride sleep stories. That way you can listen "in private"

 

I began to realize how stressed out I was when Calm began running those “do nothing for 30 seconds” ads and I would frantically hit the fast forward button, as my mind could not conceive of 30 seconds with little to no stimulation.

 

Strangely enough, at my Publix yesterday, the entire cream cheese display was wiped out, save for a couple of super expensive bougie brands and some Publix house brand strawberry cream cheese, which FYI, is actually pretty decent. Beggars can't be choosers.

 

Not sure where to put this but in my neck of the woods (NorCal), there were a couple of mass looting/vandalism instances this weekend, one with 80 people simultaneously looting and smashing things then leaving in cars that were parked clogging the streets. Sad, blatant disregard for laws. I put this here because is this a sign that the US economy is speeding towards the point where the haves v. have nots is so bad that the rev..... is coming? Its sickening to be in a place where they are just looting.

 

Was it looting, or an organized robbery crew that just happened to be extra large for such groups?

 

Some of both, I think. There were maybe half a dozen such raids over the weekend,all across the country. 15-20 or many more people in masks descend on Gucci or some other such luxe and expensive brand, raid it and run. Several stores were hit to the tune of $100k or so. I think there is some copycat action happening.

 

At least five major smash-and-grabs and counting. Jewelry store in Sun Valley (Concord), the Nordstrom's in Walnut Creek, several robberies in San Francisco, the latest down in San Jose. It certainly feels like an organized group that's got somebody casing places and lookouts. The one in Walnut Creek involved two dozen cars to block the street right at closing time and perhaps 80 people who knew exactly what to take and where to locate it. The heists are so fast, police have no time to react.

Bay Briefing: Are brazen retail heists in S.F., East Bay connected? (sfchronicle.com)