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birb_cromble  2d ago (text post)   755 thread views

Weekly Finance Thread

Since a lot of us here have expressed interest in not starving to death in a gutter, I figured I'd start a weekly thread to discuss financial matters.

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My mechanic just sent out a notification that their allocation of motor oil is being cut by the dealer network, and to expect higher prices as a result. I looked online, and rumors abound that AutoZone is experiencing a similar problem.

This got me thinking about just how pervasive petroleum and petroleum byproducts are in the modern supply chain. The last time we saw prices like this was 2008-2012, and I'm struggling to make a comparison. The fallout of the financial crisis was so strong that it masked a lot of the effects.

What do you think will happen if the strait stays clogged up for another month? Six months? A year?

In the short term, I think we're going to see a lot of industries try to normalize a "fuel surcharge". I'm already seeing it locally from landscaping companies. I could see big logistics companies like Amazon try it as well. Beyond that, I don't think I have any predictions that are worth saying out loud.

In the short term, I think we're going to see a lot of industries try to normalize a "fuel surcharge".

Assuming you're in the US, I'm surprised this isn't already a thing -- it's been normalized for all manner of things in Canada since... I wanna say 2008? The last time we had a big sudden spike, anyways.j

Amazon etc. probably won't do it because they don't need to -- they will just tell their supply chain to eat it, and it will.

I've seen it in the US in the past, I'm pretty sure, but it's certainly not universal.

"anything that comes to your specified location on a 3T+ truck" to be clear; construction materials, cement, water hauling, stuff like that (plus freight I assume -- although I don't deal with that often). The installers/resellers of these things usually just roll it into the price at the consumer level. I think ferries may add a line on your ticket at times though?

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