Category Archives: Business

Business, Health, International

Not For Sale In The US

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A recall was issued on July 28, 2022 by the Consumer Product Safety Commission for glass baby bottles. “First Choice Glass Baby Bottles Recalled by NUK Due to Violation of the Federal Lead Content Ban; Sold Exclusively on Amazon.com (Recall Alert)“.  You can read the recall notice HERE.

The reason for the recall is that the printing on the glass bottles “contain levels of lead that exceeds the federal lead content ban. Lead is toxic if ingested by young children and can cause adverse health issues.“

“Adverse health issues” might be a tad understated. Lead ingestion can cause brain damage. Lead has a sweet taste which is why children used to eat lead based paint.  Lead is used in printing ink to make colors more brilliant as well as making the ink more durable. I guess they want to make sure the infant can read the labels on the bottles. WTF?

Here’s what I find most astounding.

The bottles with the lead in the printing were knowingly manufactured for sale OUTSIDE of the US and Canada but were mistakenly sold in the US/Canadian markets. The German manufacturer makes baby bottles with lead printing and sells them to other countries, just not to US and Canada. Why would any manufacturer make baby bottles with lead as any component of the product, no matter what country it was to be sold in?  I would have initially guessed that the product was made in China, however the recall states that the bottles were manufactured in Germany.   “Deutschland Über Alles“

Business, Government, Politics

“My Plan To Fix Inflation Is To…. Do Nothing”

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Old Fool Biden (OFB) penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal describing his THREE point approach to fixing the inflation problem for the country. He then sent all of his top officials to the media to tout the wonderful plan.

Here are the THREE points of the PLAN (or as Veep Kammy would say, “Ze Plan”)

1. Respect the Federal Reserve Bank. OFB said that he will not criticize the actions of the Fed, “unlike my predecessor”, the Bad Orange Man. The Fed is an independent organization of which he has no control other than to critique their actions. Bottom line OFB is saying, DO NOTHING.

2. Wait for Congress to pass his Build Back Better plan to give away more money in the form of Clean Energy Tax Credits, have Medicare negotiate lower drug prices, and spend more on a myriad of other programs. All of this takes an act of Congress. Bottom line is OFB will DO NOTHING.

3. Raise taxes on corporations and high income earners. OFB says raising taxes on corporations and high income earners will reduce the deficit which will lower inflation. Raising corporate taxes will serve to make our nation LESS COMPETITIVE in the global economy and disincentive investment in the US. In any case, changing the tax laws requires Congress to act. Bottom line is OFB will DO NOTHING.

What a wonderful plan. Three “actions” that requires the administration to DO NOTHING and these will magically fix the inflation problem. DO NOTHING and it will all get better is what the Old Fool running our country is telling you.

Business, Government, Technology

Toys?

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I attended and open house event at a major manufacturer of Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) machines. They were demonstrating robots to automate production and run the machines “lights out”, that is overnight without any human interaction.

I asked a sales rep how business has been going during this “age of COVID“. The rep told me that business has been BOOMING. They are selling machines as fast as they can make them. The rep said right now lead time on a new machine is 20 weeks. They are also having supply chain issues. The rep mentioned that they too are suffering from the chip shortage as they can’t get everything to build up the “computer controllers” for the machines.

I asked the rep what sectors were creating the demand for machines and the response was quite interesting. The rep said that the “TOY manufacturers” are buying up machines. The definition of “TOYS” is not Barbies and Hot Wheels, but  gun parts, automotive accessories, and other flashy accessory bits. The rep speculated that all of the COVID relief money, rent relief, loan forgiveness, and extended unemployment benefits made millennials who live with their parents, flush with cash, and they ended up spending all the “virus” money buying “TOYS”.  The rep also said the medical manufacturing sector was up as well, which makes sense.

The only sector mentioned which had a downturn on machine purchases was aerospace/aircraft manufacturing.  Speculation is that the airlines weren’t buying new planes when air travel was almost nonexistent during the virus crisis compounded by Boeings ongoing issues with the 737 Max.

I spoke at length with a vendor of fixtures which increases the productivity of the CNC machines and he also said that demand is up for “TOYS“. He too said that the “gun guys” demand for parts is higher than he’s ever seen it before. He’s been in the industry for over 40 years.

Interesting data points.

Lunch Bucket Joe need to give out more money for “TOYS“.