【推荐1】Crushing disappointment

“If you want to make money in Cuba, buy garlic,” says a farmer in Artemisa province, in western Cuba. Garlic, known as “white gold” for its value, is critical to the unique seasoning of Cuban food.     1    . A lack of fertilizer and pesticide makes it especially hard to grow. And it is harvested only once a year, in January.

Every year garlic-sellers on the streets of Havana peddle bulbs from backpacks, as if selling fake luxury handbags or electronics. The price of garlic tends to boom around November and December, before more comes onto the black market. A pensioner in one part of the capital complains that a bulb now costs 25 pesos ($1) and 450g (11b) costs 240 pesos, four times the price in September.

    2    . They pay garlic farmers $50,000-100,000 to buy their whole harvest and then resell it to a network of other resellers, who in turn sell to smaller resellers and so on. The dealers make so much cash from these transactions that banks, especially the small ones out in the provinces, sometimes have to close to the public while they process the sacks of money being deposited. “You can recognize the big resellers by their cars,” sighs the farmer in Artemisa.

    3    .In 1986 Fidel Castro, then Cuba’s dictator, discovered that a garlic farmer was making $50,000 a year—ten times a local surgeon’s wage at the time— by privately selling what he had left over after meeting his quota for the state agriculture system. Outraged to see that people were behaving like “capitalists in disguise”, he closed the private farmers’ markets where it was sold.

But the pandemic has worsened shortages of basic goods in Cuba, along with fertilizers, fungicide, seeds and supplies for animals. Thousands of rabbits died last summer in an outbreak of haemorrhagic disease. Pigs may be next.     4    . Last year the government mooted eating guinea pigs, a popular food in parts of South America, but the idea was largely ridiculed. Then again, Cubans cannot live by allium alone.

【推荐2】Britain’s meat industry on Friday warned that an upcoming shortage of carbon dioxide (CO2) could cause massive disruption (中断) to food supplies within two weeks.

The gas is used to stun animals before slaughter (屠宰) , in the vacuum packing of food products to extend their shelf life, and to put the fizz into beer, cider and soft drinks. It is also required for some medical procedures and used in the nuclear and semi-conductor industries.

Britain’s food supply chain, already creaking from a severe shortage of heavy goods vehicles (HGV) drivers and the impact of Brexit (脱欧) and COVID-19, is heavily reliant on fertiliser producers for CO2 which is a by-product of their production process. However, two of the largest fertiliser producers, Norway’s Yara YAR.OL and rival CF Industries Holdings CF.N, have restrained production due to a sudden increase in natural gas prices, which has in turn started to dry up CO2 supplies.

Nick Allen, chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA), said that once current stocks of the gas run out, some meat companies will have to stop taking animals and close production lines, leading to a logjam of animals back to the farms. “We already have this situation in the pig industry which is now facing the disruption prospect of a humane killing on farms,” he said. The BMPA is persuading Business Minister Kwasi Kwarteng to help support UK CO2 production in the short-term.

“We are monitoring this situation closely and are in regular contact with the food and farming organizations and industry, to help them manage the current situation,” said a UK government spokesperson. “The UK benefits from having access to highly diverse sources of gas supply to ensure households, businesses and heavy industry get the energy they need at a fair price. Britain last suffered a major CO2 shortage in 2018, leading to some drinks wholesalers to ration (定量) sales.”

【推荐1】

【推荐2】For the past three decades, companies and consumers have benefited from cross—border connections that have helped to maintain a steady supply of electronics, clothes, toys and other goods so abundant that it has managed to keep prices low across the board.

However, as the pandemic and the Russia — Ukraine conflict continue to weigh on trade and business ties, that period of plenty appears to be undergoing a partial reversal. Companies are rethinking where to source their products and are stockpiling inventory (库存), even at the potential cost of lowering their efficiency and increasing their operation expense. If the situation lasts for very long, _________could have important implications for inflation (通货膨胀) and the world economy.

American economists are debating whether recent supply chain troubles and geopolitical conflicts will result in a shake-up of global production, in which factories that had previously been sent offshore or areas with fewer tax regulations, move back to the United States or into other more stable countries. If this happens, a decades-long decline in the prices of many goods could come to an end. We may even witness a slide backwards, meaning a potential boost in prices and overall inflation as a result.

The period of global integration before the pandemic made many of the things Americans buy cheaper. Computers and other forms of technology made factories more efficient, and they rolled out sneakers, kitchen tables, and electronics at a pace unmatched in history. Companies slashed their production costs by moving factories offshore, where wages were lower. The adoption of steel shipping containers and ever larger cargo ships allowed products to be transported from Bangladesh and China to Seattle and Tupelo and everywhere in between at astonishingly low prices.

Those changes, however, had consequences for American factory workers, who saw many jobs disappear. Katherine Tai, the U. S. trade representative, said that, while American consumers have enjoyed the “luxury” of low prices for imported goods for a long time now, the system upon which it was built has always been a very “fragile” one. Americans are not just consumers, but also workers who have to compete in a global marketplace for talent where globalization “has damaged opportunities and wages for average American workers”.

“Some returning is occurring — let’s make no mistake about that.” Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala., the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, said in an interview. But the data shows that most businesses are reducing their risk by building up their inventories and finding additional suppliers in low-cost countries, such as Vietnam and Mexico. This process could end up helping more deeply integtate poorer countries in Africa and other parts of the world into the global value chains, said Dr. Okonjo-Iweala.

The intertwined trajectory (轨迹) of globalization, low prices, and inflation on the whole will be closely watched by economists over the years to come. “It would certainly be a different world.” Jerome H. Powel, the chair of the Federal Reserve, said when asked about a possible move away from globalization. “It’s not obvious how dramatically conditions will change,” he said. “But it’s clear that it’s slowed down.”

【推荐3】On Friday, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed and was taken over by federal regulators, marking one of the largest bank failures since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. California’s banking regulators shut down SVB and effectively gives control of the bank to the FDIC, which created a new entity(实体) to oversee it. With a 40-year history, SVB served many companies, and it played an important role in the technology industry, successfully competing with bigger-name banks.

SVB’s business boomed as tech companies did well during the Covid-19. However, the technology industry recently faced difficulties, and many clients withdrew money. To fulfill these withdrawals, SVB sold part of its bond holdings(持有债券) at a $1.8 billion loss. The Federal Reserve’s(美联储) sharp rise in interest rate also affected bonds and stocks. Then SVB decided it wanted to reduce its bond portfolio(债券投资组合) to avoid further losses.

But that announcement spooked the bank’s clients, who got worried and then proceeded to withdraw even more money from the bank—a textbook definition of a bank run. The bank’s stock price(股价) fell by 60% on Thursday, and as its share price continued to sink overnight. Trading was halted, and the FDIC took over SVB.

While concerns emerged about the banking sector, shares of major banks like J. P. Morgan, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America dropped by around 5%. Investors worried that other banks, particularly smaller ones, might experience similar withdrawals. However, by Friday, fears regarding the broader banking sector had eased. Experts argued that SVB’s situation was unusual and should not impact other regional banks.

The FDIC-created entity, Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara, will oversee SVB. Insured deposits(存款), typically up to $250,000, will be accessible by Monday. Uninsured deposits face uncertainty, with the FDIC offering an “advance dividend(提前股息)” and “certificates” accounting for the uninsured funds. The regulator has not clarified what this means for uninsured depositors. Investors will continue monitoring any potential impact on other banks.