Supply Chain

Brian Levitt, global market strategist for Invesco says that there is some good news in the market -- with signs that the bond market is expecting inflation to slow and ease and other indicators showing promise -- but everyone should be watching the impact of Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes to see how long the current doldrums drag on. Levitt noted that less than 25 percent of companies on the New York Stock Exchange are trading above their 200-day moving average, and that the market typically bottoms out when that number reaches 15 percent, but he noted that commodity prices, interest rates and inflation all must moderate before the market gets to a more solid footing. Also on the show, Professor Pelin Pekgun from the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina discusses inflation and how supply chain issues typically get resolved so that an economy can break the cycle of rising prices and shortages to return to normal, Ted Rossman of Bankrate.com discusses the record levels of household debt -- but a surprising drop in credit-card debt -- reported Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Andy Behar of As You Sow discusses the group's research showing that many social investment funds aren't practicing what their name says they should preach, holding stocks that don't belong in a fund built around current governance standards.

Although COVID-19 infections have dropped from the winter, some parts of the country are seeing an uptick in cases. What will the pandemic look like this summer?

The national average for both diesel fuel and regular gas hit record highs Tuesday -- $5.55 for diesel and $4.37 for regular.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — One-third of parents with kids under 6 will skip the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for their children those ages when it becomes available, a survey says; and the FDA is warning about fake at-home COVID-19 tests.

The twin events in Ukraine and Shanghai have shattered the core assumptions underlying global supply chains. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall more than three decades ago, multinational corporations had often been able to separate business and geopolitics, assuming that world leaders generally make rational decisions regardless of their ideology. However, with Putin's invasion of Ukraine and Shanghai's severe, month-long lockdown, it's clear that such assumptions were wildly over-optimistic.

What a difference a year makes. The U.S. inflation rate was at 1.4 percent when Joe Biden was sworn in as President in January 2021. In just fifteen months, it has since risen rapidly to a 40-year high of 8.5 percent, the result of global supply chain issues.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised unspecified concerns about the manufacturing of Covaxin, one of India’s home-grown COVID-19 vaccines. On 2 April, WHO said it had found problems during a March inspection of the production facilities of Bharat Biotech, the vaccine’s producer. WHO did not disclose the nature of the problems at the plant, which is located in Hyderabad, in Telangana state. But it said Bharat Biotech has agreed to stop exports of Covaxin and is “developing a corrective and preventive action plan.”

Dr. David Simchi-Levi, director of the MIT Data Science Lab, joins the podcast to discuss how recent events have shocked the global system.

Francis Fukuyama, the U.S. political scientist who once described the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “end of history,” suggested that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine might be called “the end of the end of history.” He meant that Vladimir Putin’s aggression signals a rollback of the ideals of a free Europe that emerged after 1991. Some observers suggest it may kick off a new cold war, with an iron curtain separating the West from Russia.

Francis Fukuyama, the American political scientist who once described the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “end of history,” suggested that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine might be called “the end of the end of history.” He meant that Vladimir Putin’s aggression signals a rollback of the ideals of a free Europe that emerged after 1991. Some observers suggest it may kick off a new Cold War, with an Iron Curtain separating the West from Russia.