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> The rates for both trade lanes are hovering around 2019 levels, but fuel and labor expenses are higher now than before the pandemic. Hard to really feel like

> The rates for both trade lanes are hovering around 2019 levels, but fuel and labor expenses are higher now than before the pandemic. Hard to really feel like this is a crisis, since all of the reporting is how there was a brief, glorious period (for the companies) of 10x prices, and the crisis is that the period is ended.

somethoughts 3y ago
Definitely feels like there should be a "law of headlines" coined to effect of - something must always either be surging catastrophically or plummeting disatrously.
- glup 3y ago
  And that’s an inclusive “or”, mind you-- I remember an Al-Jazeera news story that opened with the line “Some say the new measures go too far… but do the new measures go far enough?”
  - bandrami 3y ago
    It's annoying because the "Critics charge X but supporters say Y" is an easy template for lazy journalism, and you invariably end up just re-typing the press releases of two competing advocacy organizations. If the Association of Umbrella Manufacturers says it's raining outside and the Organization of Sunscreen Bottlers says it's sunny, the reporter needs to open the window and look rather than just forwarding those statements; I can read them myself if I want to.
    - orwin 3y ago
      Exactly my grip with CNN and others news channel trying the 'middle ground' like BBC. I'd rather watch media with declared bias like Fox News than CNN/BBC where the bias is only visible in subject choices and editors/presentators are afraid to get wet. Upside : that's allow for a quick U-turn. By the way, I know an independent journalist: the version you get on TV is often the editor's cut. Sometimes journalists are only reporters, but more often than not there is censorship (or self-censorship for non independent journalists) in the editor's room. That's why report from the same journalist can be used by 'liberal news' and ' conservative news' (not idea if that happens in the US, but in my country it does.) Honestly, you'll be better served with local newspapers. Or independent local news.
- eastbound 3y ago
  The law of headlines should also mention that they mention events in the future: “Today, we expect the president to meet with xyz and announce what they will do with abc”, building up the thrill, rather than reporting when it’s done and the announcement is made. Journalists talking about the future. That’s not journalism.
  - eyelidlessness 3y ago
    Yes, it is. Being aware of how the immediate future is shaped by already made decisions helps to inform people who wouldn’t otherwise know what’s pending. The contrary journalistic standard would be, well, the first chapter of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
    - eastbound 3y ago
      No. It’s a journalism of building up expectations and hyping up the dopamine, ie it’s barely marketing. Journalism is about reporting information. Information about future events is not information.
      - lazyasciiart 3y ago
        Of course it is. I would be furious if my local news stopped informing me that the highway will be closed for maintenance on Saturday, elections are being held on Tuesday, public schools have the day off on Thursday and the local university will be playing a championship game on Sunday.
        detaro 3y ago
        These are all not examples of what the original comment complains about.
        wholinator2 3y ago
        So then to me it looks like it isn't about reporting the future, but speculating about it.
- hsbauauvhabzb 3y ago
  Australian media uses the word horror in almost every tragedy story. Sometimes I feel like they need thesaurus’s explained to them.
  - lazyasciiart 3y ago
    thesaurus's what?
- lynx23 3y ago
  The truth is, journalism has cratered. However, most are not ready to accept the truth, since they still believe the media are an essential part of democracy.
  - carlmr 3y ago
    Good news reporting is an essential part of democracy. We don't have it anymore. Nobody wants to pay for it. We'll see how it goes.
    - lynx23 3y ago
      Lamenting the unwillingness to pay for trash is a hopeless cause. The cat bites its own tale. Most news outlets I know have deteriorated so much in quality that I would never even think about paying for any of that propaganda. Give me a good, balanced, non-pliticized and honest news site, and I might consider supporting them.
      - saintkaye 3y ago
        You don’t actually want that or you’d be paying for it already. The problem is that most news doesn’t affect you and the majority that does only affects you in that it excites, scares or entertains you. It wasn’t that news got bad or people got more evil, it’s that the value of information cratered and now it’s not even expensive enough to come with editors.
        robertlagrant 3y ago
        > You don’t actually want that or you’d be paying for it already Which one are you talking about?
        account42 3y ago
        > The problem is that most news doesn’t affect you. There is plenty of news that affect me, it just happens to (mostly) not be covered in the news. And when it is it is often propaganda rather than even remotely unbiased reporting.
- blowski 3y ago
  Or plateauing unsustainably.
- subarctic 3y ago
  Or plateauing disappointingly?
- Denvercoder9 3y ago
  Isn't that just an intrinsic property of the news? If things are unchanging, there's nothing new, so it's almost by definition not news.
  - joshspankit 3y ago
    It’s an intrinsic part of ad-supported news (which seems to be all we have right now). When news was just news there were “slow news days” where there was either no reporting or “fluff”.
anothernewdude 3y ago
Did you ever do the exercise in economics class where you learn that a demand shock can bankrupt businesses in a supply chain?
switch007 3y ago
I can’t wait for all the retailers who jacked their prices and advertised that it was directly due to shipping by rates to also now similarly advertise a massive drop in prices …
nonethewiser 3y ago
Im not sure I follow… rates are the same as 4 years ago but operating costs are significantly higher. That seems genuinely difficult - if their rates dont keep up with inflation then its not a sustainable trend.
- lost_tourist 3y ago
  What were their rates 5, 6, and 7 years ago? what was their inflation adjust costs and profits over a decade? Did they just pluck out one year of data and say "that's what the profits we want to be making" if that year was a particularly prosperous year.
globalempire 3y ago
If international trade declines, this could indeed tip the scales and give labor a stronger bargaining position across the globe. Less trade might mean fewer cheap imports and potentially more jobs for local industries. This shift could lead workers to demand higher wages and better working conditions, knowing that the globopatricians can't easily jump ship to cheaper labor markets.
rjzzleep 3y ago
How is no one talking about the sanctions war? Either here or in the article. Part of the sanctions war has made it extremely hard for insurers to know whether or not they are violating sanctions by insuring vessels. Navigating the current legal landscape is a nightmare for shipping companies, which leads a lot of companies to not not accept cargo if they can't be certain about the legal situation.
- refulgentis 3y ago
  Because it’s completely irrelevant, even after your comment, it’s not clear at all what the relevancy is
prng2021 3y ago
"fuel and labor expenses are higher now than before the pandemic. “Spot rates are at a level that in the long run are not sustainable, with costs up by 25% to 30% since 2019" We all speak English here and read the same article right? Shipping fees are back to prepandemic levels but operating costs are much higher. Why doesn't that count as a crisis or as something worth reporting?
- tedivm 3y ago
  Companies reach records profits: invisible hand of the market. Wages go up: crisis that could destroy our economy.
  - sidewndr46 3y ago
    I guess the way I've interpreted that is: Company profits go up - economic growth Wages go up - inflation
  - Robotbeat 3y ago
    I wonder if the same folks asking for taxing away those profits are now saying these companies should be subsidized now that they’re losing money. (Kind of doubt it…)
- lukeramsden 3y ago
  Then the price has to go up. This sounds like… regular market dynamics? It’s still not clear why that’s a crisis?
dpflan 3y ago
I agree here, some of these headlines are based upon the outlier effect of economic whiplash stemming from the pandemic -- hard to have economic models keep up. Now companies are returning to pre-pandemic activity, and apparently, it's a catastrophe... We should try postulating what was economically forecast prior to the pandemic boom-bust-whiplash.
Robotbeat 3y ago
The crisis is that their costs are now much higher but the going rate is the same so they’re now losing money. A glut nearly always follows a shortage. Virtually every single time. So there is no contradiction at all in noting there was a severe shortage before but now there’s a glut.

somethoughts 3y ago

Definitely feels like there should be a "law of headlines" coined to effect of - something must always either be surging catastrophically or plummeting disatrously.

glup 3y ago
And that’s an inclusive “or”, mind you-- I remember an Al-Jazeera news story that opened with the line “Some say the new measures go too far… but do the new measures go far enough?”
- bandrami 3y ago
  It's annoying because the "Critics charge X but supporters say Y" is an easy template for lazy journalism, and you invariably end up just re-typing the press releases of two competing advocacy organizations. If the Association of Umbrella Manufacturers says it's raining outside and the Organization of Sunscreen Bottlers says it's sunny, the reporter needs to open the window and look rather than just forwarding those statements; I can read them myself if I want to.
  - orwin 3y ago
    Exactly my grip with CNN and others news channel trying the 'middle ground' like BBC. I'd rather watch media with declared bias like Fox News than CNN/BBC where the bias is only visible in subject choices and editors/presentators are afraid to get wet. Upside : that's allow for a quick U-turn. By the way, I know an independent journalist: the version you get on TV is often the editor's cut. Sometimes journalists are only reporters, but more often than not there is censorship (or self-censorship for non independent journalists) in the editor's room. That's why report from the same journalist can be used by 'liberal news' and ' conservative news' (not idea if that happens in the US, but in my country it does.) Honestly, you'll be better served with local newspapers. Or independent local news.
eastbound 3y ago
The law of headlines should also mention that they mention events in the future: “Today, we expect the president to meet with xyz and announce what they will do with abc”, building up the thrill, rather than reporting when it’s done and the announcement is made. Journalists talking about the future. That’s not journalism.
- eyelidlessness 3y ago
  Yes, it is. Being aware of how the immediate future is shaped by already made decisions helps to inform people who wouldn’t otherwise know what’s pending. The contrary journalistic standard would be, well, the first chapter of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
  - eastbound 3y ago
    No. It’s a journalism of building up expectations and hyping up the dopamine, ie it’s barely marketing. Journalism is about reporting information. Information about future events is not information.
    - lazyasciiart 3y ago
      Of course it is. I would be furious if my local news stopped informing me that the highway will be closed for maintenance on Saturday, elections are being held on Tuesday, public schools have the day off on Thursday and the local university will be playing a championship game on Sunday.
      - detaro 3y ago
        These are all not examples of what the original comment complains about.
        wholinator2 3y ago
        So then to me it looks like it isn't about reporting the future, but speculating about it.
hsbauauvhabzb 3y ago
Australian media uses the word horror in almost every tragedy story. Sometimes I feel like they need thesaurus’s explained to them.
- lazyasciiart 3y ago
  thesaurus's what?
lynx23 3y ago
The truth is, journalism has cratered. However, most are not ready to accept the truth, since they still believe the media are an essential part of democracy.
- carlmr 3y ago
  Good news reporting is an essential part of democracy. We don't have it anymore. Nobody wants to pay for it. We'll see how it goes.
  - lynx23 3y ago
    Lamenting the unwillingness to pay for trash is a hopeless cause. The cat bites its own tale. Most news outlets I know have deteriorated so much in quality that I would never even think about paying for any of that propaganda. Give me a good, balanced, non-pliticized and honest news site, and I might consider supporting them.
    - saintkaye 3y ago
      You don’t actually want that or you’d be paying for it already. The problem is that most news doesn’t affect you and the majority that does only affects you in that it excites, scares or entertains you. It wasn’t that news got bad or people got more evil, it’s that the value of information cratered and now it’s not even expensive enough to come with editors.
      - robertlagrant 3y ago
        > You don’t actually want that or you’d be paying for it already Which one are you talking about?
      - account42 3y ago
        > The problem is that most news doesn’t affect you. There is plenty of news that affect me, it just happens to (mostly) not be covered in the news. And when it is it is often propaganda rather than even remotely unbiased reporting.
blowski 3y ago
Or plateauing unsustainably.
subarctic 3y ago
Or plateauing disappointingly?
Denvercoder9 3y ago
Isn't that just an intrinsic property of the news? If things are unchanging, there's nothing new, so it's almost by definition not news.
- joshspankit 3y ago
  It’s an intrinsic part of ad-supported news (which seems to be all we have right now). When news was just news there were “slow news days” where there was either no reporting or “fluff”.

anothernewdude 3y ago

Did you ever do the exercise in economics class where you learn that a demand shock can bankrupt businesses in a supply chain?

switch007 3y ago

I can’t wait for all the retailers who jacked their prices and advertised that it was directly due to shipping by rates to also now similarly advertise a massive drop in prices …

nonethewiser 3y ago

Im not sure I follow… rates are the same as 4 years ago but operating costs are significantly higher. That seems genuinely difficult - if their rates dont keep up with inflation then its not a sustainable trend.

lost_tourist 3y ago
What were their rates 5, 6, and 7 years ago? what was their inflation adjust costs and profits over a decade? Did they just pluck out one year of data and say "that's what the profits we want to be making" if that year was a particularly prosperous year.

globalempire 3y ago

If international trade declines, this could indeed tip the scales and give labor a stronger bargaining position across the globe. Less trade might mean fewer cheap imports and potentially more jobs for local industries. This shift could lead workers to demand higher wages and better working conditions, knowing that the globopatricians can't easily jump ship to cheaper labor markets.

rjzzleep 3y ago

How is no one talking about the sanctions war? Either here or in the article. Part of the sanctions war has made it extremely hard for insurers to know whether or not they are violating sanctions by insuring vessels. Navigating the current legal landscape is a nightmare for shipping companies, which leads a lot of companies to not not accept cargo if they can't be certain about the legal situation.

refulgentis 3y ago
Because it’s completely irrelevant, even after your comment, it’s not clear at all what the relevancy is

prng2021 3y ago

"fuel and labor expenses are higher now than before the pandemic. “Spot rates are at a level that in the long run are not sustainable, with costs up by 25% to 30% since 2019" We all speak English here and read the same article right? Shipping fees are back to prepandemic levels but operating costs are much higher. Why doesn't that count as a crisis or as something worth reporting?

tedivm 3y ago
Companies reach records profits: invisible hand of the market. Wages go up: crisis that could destroy our economy.
- sidewndr46 3y ago
  I guess the way I've interpreted that is: Company profits go up - economic growth Wages go up - inflation
- Robotbeat 3y ago
  I wonder if the same folks asking for taxing away those profits are now saying these companies should be subsidized now that they’re losing money. (Kind of doubt it…)
lukeramsden 3y ago
Then the price has to go up. This sounds like… regular market dynamics? It’s still not clear why that’s a crisis?

dpflan 3y ago

I agree here, some of these headlines are based upon the outlier effect of economic whiplash stemming from the pandemic -- hard to have economic models keep up. Now companies are returning to pre-pandemic activity, and apparently, it's a catastrophe... We should try postulating what was economically forecast prior to the pandemic boom-bust-whiplash.

Robotbeat 3y ago

The crisis is that their costs are now much higher but the going rate is the same so they’re now losing money. A glut nearly always follows a shortage. Virtually every single time. So there is no contradiction at all in noting there was a severe shortage before but now there’s a glut.