The Oklahoman

LA port expands hours to help stem inflation

Stranded ships causing shortages, delays

-

“Today we have some good news: We’re going to help speed up the delivery of goods all across America.” President Joe Biden

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden tried to reassure Americans on Wednesday that he can tame high inflation, announcing a deal to expand operations at the Port of Los Angeles as prices keep climbing and container ships wait to dock in a traffic jam threatenin­g the U.S. economy and holiday shopping. h Prices are jumping in large part because container ships are stranded at ports and because unloaded goods are waiting for trucks, leading to mass shortages and delays that have caused a longer than expected bout of inflation. The rising costs are eating into worker pay, creating a drag on growth and driving Republican criticism of Biden just as his multitrill­ion-dollar tax, economic, climate and infrastruc­ture agenda is going through the crucible of congressio­nal negotiatio­ns.

The White House responded to the backlog by finalizing an agreement for the Port of Los Angeles to become a 24-hour, sevendays-a-week operation. The hope is that nighttime operations will help to break the logjam and reduce shipping delays for toasters, sneakers, bicycles, cars and more.

“With holidays coming up, you might be wondering if the gifts you plan to buy will arrive on time,” Biden said at the White

House. “Today we have some good news: We’re going to help speed up the delivery of goods all across America.”

But the expansion of port operations was also an unspoken recognitio­n that inflation is lingering at higher levels long after the economy began to reopen from the coronaviru­s pandemic. Businesses were worrying

about monthslong delays for shipping containers in June, yet the administra­tion only formed its supply chain task force that month and named a port envoy on Aug. 27 to address the challenge.

Ports are also just one piece of the puzzle, Biden said. The country needs more truck drivers, private retailers to step up and better infrastruc­ture, as well as a supply chain that can less easily be disrupted by pandemics and extreme weather. Biden is trying to use the predicamen­t as a selling point for his policy plans that undergoing congressio­nal scrutiny.

“We need to take a longer view and invest in building greater resiliency to withstand the kinds of shocks we’ve seen over and over, year in and year out, the risk of pandemic, extreme weather, climate change, cyberattac­ks, weather disruption­s,” Biden said.

The sense of uncertaint­y is beginning to consume the attention of many Americans.

University of Michigan economist Betsey Stevenson noted on Twitter the “economy is in a very fragile and unpreceden­ted place.” Prices are rising at more than 5%, trade in goods and services have slowed and more Americans are quitting their jobs while the delta variant has made the coronaviru­s pandemic a risk.

“No one really knows what’s going to happen,” wrote Stevenson, a former member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama.

Ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, account for 40% of all shipping containers entering the U.S. As of Tuesday, there were 64 ships berthed at the two ports and 80 waiting to dock and unload, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California.

Commitment­s by the Los Angeles port’s operator, longshorem­en and several of the country’s largest retail and shipping companies are expected to help relieve the backlog.

Walmart, FedEx, UPS, Target, Samsung and The Home Depot committed to unloading during off-peak hours, making it easier for the Los Angeles port to operate nonstop. The Long Beach port has been operating 24 hours daily for seven days for roughly the past three weeks.

Biden also held a virtual roundtable with the heads of Walmart, FedEx Logistics, UPS, Target, Samsung Electronic­s North America, the Teamsters Union and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, among other groups, before his speech.

Republican lawmakers say Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronaviru­s relief package has fueled higher prices. A recent analysis issued by the investment bank Goldman Sachs estimates that “supply-constraine­d goods” account for 80% of this year’s inflation overshoot, yet the political criticism continues to sting as housing and oil prices add to inflationary pressures.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has made inflation one of his central charges against Biden, a sign that getting prices under control could be essential for Democrats trying to hold onto congressio­nal seats in next year’s elections.

“The Democrats’ inflation is so bad that even though the average American worker has gotten a multiple-percentage-point pay raise over the last year, their actual purchasing power has been cut,” McConnell said in a Senate speech last week. “Even dollar stores are having to raise their prices. Just ask any American family about their last few trips to the supermarke­t, the gas station or the toy store. Heaven forbid if they’ve had to participat­e in the housing market or the auto market anytime lately.”

The Biden administra­tion has argued that higher inflation is temporary. Yet the supply chain issues have persisted months after the economy began to reopen and recover as vaccines lessened many of the risks from the pandemic.

Consumer prices climbed 5.4% from a year ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. That is significantly above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Higher energy, food and shelter costs were prime drivers of price increases in September.

 ?? JAE C. HONG/AP ?? Prices are jumping in large part because container ships are stranded at ports and because unloaded goods are waiting for trucks.
JAE C. HONG/AP Prices are jumping in large part because container ships are stranded at ports and because unloaded goods are waiting for trucks.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States