October 18, 2022
Notable
- Rumor has it President Biden will announce another 15M barrels of oil to be released from the SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve)
- Bloomberg cites a report that says that semiconductor chip lead (how long it takes to receive the chips after you order them) times declined in September by 4 days, down to 26.3 weeks.
- According to the WHO (World Health Organization, not a bunch of owls) one-third of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed, causing blackouts across the country.
What’s coming? More oil…more chips…more elec…uh, no more electricity
The release of oil from the SPR was due to end in November…right around the midterm elections. Coincidence? Apparently, now the government will release 15M barrels of oil more than originally planned. A cynical person might note that the Democrats are at risk of losing their majorities in the midterm elections, and the price at the pump these days is pissing people off something terrible. A more generous person might simply say that the price of gas is high and people need relief, so we’re very reasonably dipping into the SPR. You be the judge.
No…it’s not potato chips…or the way weird English people talk about fish with French fries…it’s computer chips! It’s looking like that chip crunch we’ve been suffering from ever since the pandemic shut down supply chains is finally starting to ease. Lead times for how long it takes to get chips that you’ve ordered is still more than half a year and far more than what it was before the pandemic, but they’re getting shorter. There’s also the question as to whether President Biden’s most recent anti-China chip mandate will have an effect on the availability of chips. IBM…AMD…Micron…they’ve all gotta be hurting. Short them!!! (this is not investment advice) Or upgrade your gaming computer. I know two million FPS (frames per second) isn’t enough for serious gamers [teens with no social skills] even though the human eye can’t see the difference beyond 60 FPS, so I predict a lot of nVidia cards will be flying off the shelves soon.
Personally, I’m waiting for quantum computers that work with Elon’s Neuralink so I can shoot people in Valorant without twitching a finger. I mean, my son is waiting for that. He’s really into Valorant. Not me, though. That’s so childish.
The WHO is worried that all that bombing in the Ukraine is going to have massive repercussions during the upcoming winter, and they may have a point. If it’s true that one-third of Ukraine’s power stations are destroyed, people are going to have a hard time feeling their toes when Santa is riding by to drop off gifts (or coal). This is a serious issue — the same issue Europe faces this winter but probably worse since if Putin (that guy really is never gonna go away) decides to press the attack during the winter, the war could have a pretty dramatic turnaround. That’s not to mention the fact that winter itself can be fatal without heat.
No matter what, we all have to buckle down because, as George R.R. Martin has said over and over again, winter is coming.