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Texas medical masks manufacturer is caught in coronavirus’s supply chain panic
- neonate 7y agohttps://archive.md/OHklY https://archive.md/OHklY
- ISL 7y agoThere must be an investor out there willing to speculate on the probability of a health scare.
- missosoup 7y agoI forgot the name, but there's a whole site dedicated to listing what to long/short for various 'immoral' scenarios like major disasters, pandemics, housing crashes, etc.
- ta999999171 7y agoVery interested if someone's familiar with this.
- XMPPwocky 7y agoFuck it, we're well into late capitalism, anyways...anybody want to start an index fund?
- whatshisface 7y agoHow are any of those things immoral? Let's say you think there is a pandemic coming and you invest in mask manufacturers. They use your investment to build more mask factories. When the pandemic hits they sell more masks because their new factories can handle the demand spike. Your make more money, and the public gets better protection while being saved from a price spike - all because you offered your money and foresight. You could tell the same stories for the other events.
- viraptor 7y agoIt really depends what the funds include. What it you fund manufacturers when preppers buy guns/ammunition? What if you fund companies buying out defaulted property during housing crisis just to flip it for more money in a few months? It doesn't have to be all immoral, but some companies will be.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- oarsinsync 7y ago> Let's say you think there is a pandemic coming and you invest in mask manufacturers. They use your investment I generally invest in exchange listed companies. When I invest, I'm buying from someone else, not from the company. They already got paid when they floated. They're not seeing a dime through exchange trade unless they make more shares available, diluting everyone else's investment in the process. So when I invest, someone else gets paid. They may get paid or less than they paid when they bought, but they're getting paid. Not the company I invested in.
- unishark 7y agoBasically you have unnecessary production capacity losing money the majority of the time, which can only pay off during infrequent emergencies. Then if price-gouging laws prevent you from charging more during an emergency you won't make your money back.
- onetimemanytime 7y agoYour kids will named and shamed in school cause daddy jacked up the prices when people are dying. The government needs to invest, and even keep a few essential factories on standby or buy, say linens from factories that if needed will make masks. WTH, we invest $700 BILLION in the military and if you don't have antibiotics, scrubs and other basics, what's the point? The government bailed out car companies and other than jobs, it also means that in a WW scenario, the GM and Ford factories will make tanks instead of cars. Some things re essential.
- culturestate 7y agoIt's not really the same - I assume you're thinking of VC money going into "boring" businesses in anticipation of a market-altering global event, like investing in Remington because you believe there'll be a war - but catastrophe bonds are a thing: https://www.thebalance.com/catastrophe-bonds-definition-and-investing-4157571 https://www.thebalance.com/catastrophe-bonds-definition-and-...
- zelly 7y agoIt's called the VIX and it goes up for any choas not just pandemics.
- cheschire 7y agoI never understood the obsession with masks and simultaneous complete lack of interest in simple reusable cotton gloves. Is it because masks get more attention and there’s a large overlap between narcissists and people scared of the zombie apocalypse? I’m kidding about that, but it’s really odd how easily people seem to flock without attempting any deeper analysis.
- javagram 7y agoWhy gloves? Hand washing seems like it would serve the same purpose and more effectively (I believe to properly sanitize the cotton gloves, you’d have to bleach them, and how do they protect you anyway? Viruses can’t get through your skin unless you have an cut). The masks have been shown to be effective in reducing the spread of disease. It’s essentially “cough/sneeze into your elbow” but much more effective.
- _-___________-_ 7y agoHave surgical masks really shown to be effective in reducing the spread of disease when worn by people who are not yet infected? I've been to mainland China, Taiwan, HK, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand in the last four weeks. China has close to 100% usage of masks in public, mostly the surgical type. The virus is spreading like wildfire there. Every other country I've visited has markedly less mask usage, in particular Vietnam where at least in the south, it's relatively rare to see people wearing them. Yet in all the other countries it's hardly spreading (obviously I'm excluding the cruise ship off the coast of Japan here, which appears to be a special case).
- pbourke 7y agoAbsence of evidence is not evidence of absence. A number of public health authorities, including the US CDC, have stated that there is likely community transmission happening.
- whatshisface 7y agoHow do you know if your cough is due to smog or due to infection? Best to wear the mask anyway.
- onetimemanytime 7y agoJust like agriculture and heavy industry, USA must make sure that medical supplies are made here. In an emergency, no country will let a company export to USA, they need them back home first.
- pbhjpbhj 7y agoCentral planning? That should go down well??
- swsieber 7y agoTariffs and taxes? We've (USA) been central planning for a long time. Just like we've socialist for a long time (welfare programs). You can achieve goals by warping the markets, not just dictating what should happen.
- hombre_fatal 7y agoCentral planning is alive and well in USA like price fixed agricultural products
- notfromhere 7y agoImport focused labor arbitrage schemes that US multinationals have been pushing for the last 40 years break down when the flow of goods stops. Critical industries need to be domestic because otherwise the country is left vulnerable in a crisis.
- mattigames 7y agoTrusting profit-motivated organizations to make decisions that are aligned with the common good has been proven to be a mistake over and over again; Is actually in healthcare's industry best interest that even more people get cancer; in general everything health related should be highly controlled and supplied by the government itself to avoid such dangerous motivators, even the food industry must be highly regulated to make sure it doesn't make false health-related promises, and in general any product promising health benefits.
- bsder 7y agoWelcome to the end result of Just In Time inventory. Nobody wants to hold inventory because that represents "wasted money". So, when you need inventory, everybody is screwed. This is just like the banking crisis of 2008. There is no point in being the Cassandra. If you're right, everybody is screwed. If your wrong, you personally lose. Better to just bank your money and try to bail out as soon as possible.
- jriley 7y agoTexas also charges ~2.5% annually on value of inventory.
- ratsmack 7y agoStatic value should never be taxed, which includes real property. The value should only become apparent at the time of sale.
- cat199 7y agonot sure about the inventory taxes here, but property tax in general basically serves as the 'income tax' of texas from a state revenue perspective. which is, 'interesting' for a variety of reasons.
- bsder 7y agoOn property I totally don't agree. Prop 13 in California is the poster child for the damage that kind of thinking causes. On parts inventory, I'm probably quite a bit more in agreement. Holding inventory is risky, but spectacularly useful when there are disruptions.
- ISL 7y agoShould income-earners pay for the fire department, or should those whose property might burn?
- paganel 7y agoI guess this health crisis will also be the end of just in time logistics, as almost nothing is produced in China right at this moment. If anything, the recent trade sanctions debacle in the US might have given some US companies a head-start in helping them not being so dependent on Chinese manufacturing, but I don’t think the advantage is too large.
- MrBuddyCasino 7y agoNo one in this thread mentioned the federal emergency stockpile of 100mio masks. It seems this is at least in principle the solution to this issue? If a 4 week stockpile turns out to be insufficient, make it a 8 week stockpile, problem solved.
- celticninja 7y agoStorage and rotation is your biggest issue.
- nitrogen 7y agoFor rotation, can the stockpile be made part of the normal supply chain, so that masks are sold halfway through their shelf life and new ones flow into the stockpile? Or does the size of such a stockpile mean that the masks would expire faster than the market would buy them?
- whatshisface 7y agoI don't want all of the masks I buy to be through half their life already. Also, how can the government have the power to do that?
- dragontamer 7y ago> Also, how can the government have the power to do that? Through laws? USA has a strategic reserve of oil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Petroleum_Reserve_(United_States) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Petroleum_Reserve_(U... I really don't see how masks, or other emergency equipment, changes things. Stockpiling stuff for emergencies seems to be the thing that governments should do.
- whatshisface 7y agoThey buy the oil, they don't force everyone to give it to them for a time before being allowed to sell it.
- maa5444 7y agohas GRETA started already to complain about the pollution generated by all these disposable masks ?
- DataWorker 7y agoThis is racism and irresponsible journalism “all but 3 deaths have been in China.” There is a time lag! The disease doesn’t care if you are Chinese or white. No hospital system can handle the numbers that came first to China, and will soon come here. Wapo downplaying the virus. Just like they’ve downplayed the threat of globalism. And those who have tried to sound the alarm or argued that we should, gasp, renegotiate trade and bring back some manufacturing, those people are slandered as xenophobic or economics dunces. “Any serious person knows we can’t bring manufacturing back.” “Protectionism is stupid, trade wars hurt us,etc...” And now they want to tell the American public, “no death outside China.” Blood on their hands!
- pbourke 7y ago> This is racism and irresponsible journalism “all but 3 deaths have been in China.” Why would you say that this is racism or irresponsible journalism? It seems like a simple statement of fact.
- DataWorker 7y agoIt’s a fact that has no importance other than to mislead. There is no reason to think the virus is any less deadly outside of China or in non-Asian patients. The rest of the world is just a few weeks, give or take local variation in R0, behind and we should expect the same or similar outcomes. That’s according to the experts who spoke at the senate hearing last week.
- danso 7y agoThe fact that only 3 deaths have occurred outside of China (and the vast majority in Wuhan is an important metric in assessing how the virus spreads and how effective or not containment policies have been. There are many, many Chinese people who live outside of China, and emphasizing that the virus is heavily contained in the country of its origin is pretty relevant to anyone who hasn’t visited China recently.
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