Just wanted to share here that last night we had friends over from Scotland. I saw her last during summer and she was not in good place back then. Feeling very anxious all the time about their business and the way things in the world were progressing with all the idiotic covid rules in place, etc. etc. She found herself eating bad stuff, drinking too much alcohol and binge watching Netflix series, which were not uplifting at all. At the time i was reading "The Ravenels" series by Lisa Kleypas from the romance novels collection and i recommended them to her, just to be in a good world for a while where good values are emphasized and you can relate to their psychological struggles and that all stories have a happy ending. Hadn't seen or spoken with her since then, so last night she mentioned that she had ordered the books right away and that they had been a real life saver for her. In her turn she recommended them to all her friends and family as an antidote to stress! Now she put Mary Balogh, Anne Gracie, etc. on her list.
The stories they told us about their business and the businesses of their friends show all the signs of the economy going bust sooner rather than later. She and her husband operate a business where their products are manufactured in China and shipped to the UK for distribution there. Now, they find that all their products are late, rates for shipping containers have gone up from 2,000 USD to 20,000 USD, deliveries are late or cannot be done plus the Chinese, understandably, want more money for all their work, so costs in that area are rising as well. Their partners in China also inform them that part of the problem at their particular end is also that Chinese truck drivers do not want to deliver containers to the port. If they do, they are submitted to a COVID test and if found positive, they are sent home for 14 days, which means no income (I don't know if this is true though).
Not only shipping goods from Asia to Europe is problematic, they told us that one of their friends is the main supplier of canned tomatoes from Italy to the UK for the company Aldi. Aldi negotiates strict contracts stipulating that the supplier is responsible for all costs up to and including delivery. He booked containers on vessels but they are all delayed and their are no empty containers available, which means big fines for him. He tries to find empty containers and trucks and truckdrivers to go by road, but he can't. The drivers do not want to go to the UK due to impossible Brexit rules, I understand the UK is now changing some of those rules because of these types of consequences. One blatant example though of sheer incompetency of the pathocrats in power. This problem will not get solved anytime soon they expect.
Interestingly, it's not just these small potato businesses that suffer these problems. Also the big ones are having these exact same troubles. Our friend at Mercedes, stationed in the EU, told us that Mercedes stopped production of its cheaper cars as they can't get enough chips due to supply chain problems. All chips they can get go to their high end models, of which they have significantly increased the price. And even Apple has problems getting chips and is cutting production of several products. Most of these big companies doing battle on the stage out there are eventually somehow owned by Vanguard and its select little group of private owners. Bet they're gearing up for a field day buying up whatever they want for next to naught over the coming months.
In the meantime in Portugal, the economy is really going south, people are angry. The clown in charge even gave up his spot in the limelight in Glasgow in order to try to calm things down here. Twenty years of corrupt socialist politicians and criminal bankers plundering and raping this country, without any consequences (yes, some have been convicted but no way they are actually spending time in jail) has brought it to its knees. A while ago,
Reiner Fuelmich interviewed our "negationist" hero judge Rui Fonseca e Castro, who also claims
high up pedophiles in government are ruling this country. New elections doom, naturally the opposition is divided amongst themselves but thankfully the Covid situation has been put on the backburner for now. There is still no mandate to vaccinate but the vast majority has been injected and according to the Health Council, the only uninjected people now are the ones under 12 years old, while the immuno compromised got the 3rd injection already weeks ago and they want all healthcare personnel to follow suit. The EU meanwhile wants countries to put hatred into the hearts of the "vaccinated" against the "unvaccinated", as is happening in so many other Western countries, but in light of the above
they really can't sell that one here (yet). They even admit that the high number of "infections" and hospitalizations are found in the "vaccinated group".
#Corona
