Remember the ship that blocked the Suez Canal in 2021, clogging a vital trade passageway for as much as 12% of the world’s seaborne trade?
Well, we may have a similar situation on our hands in the Panama Canal 👇 🧵
A drought at Gatun Lake, which feeds the Panama Canal, has caused water levels to drop significantly.
If it persists, it poses a threat to the recent alleviation of global delivery bottlenecks, potentially causing a surge in shipping costs, consumer demand, & goods shortages.
For context, the canal has 46% of the total market share for shipments between NE Asia and the US East Coast.
It connects 160 countries and 1,700 ports worldwide. By using the canal, ships save ~7,875 miles from San Francisco to NY, avoiding the need to circumvent South America.
In a massive victory for the #MeToo movement, the Senate passed a landmark bill yesterday that bans companies from using forced arbitration to handle sexual assault and harassment cases.
A thread.
The backstory:
60 million workers in the US are required by their contracts to settle any sexual misconduct case in private arbitration rather than taking it to court.
The arbitration process has no jury, no judge, and typically protects companies and offenders. It’s also seen as a less expensive resolution option for employers.
After 50+ hours of deliberations and seven days, a jury found Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes guilty on four charges of criminal fraud yesterday.
A thread on the trial and the woman behind it all.
Holmes was convicted of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
She was found not guilty on four other charges and the jury couldn’t agree on a verdict for three charges.
Basically, the jury concluded that Holmes intentionally lied to investors to raise gobs of money for her company, a blood testing startup that promised to revolutionize health care.
The 2021 stock market was bookended by meme stock mania in January and a brief Omicron scare in November and December. But in between, it was a remarkably smooth ride.
Here's a look back at the year that was for stocks.
If you followed Warren Buffett’s advice and put your money in an S&P 500 index fund, you did very well for yourself last year. The broad index gained 27% in 2021 and closed at a record 70 times—the most since 1995.
Big tech had a great but not amazing year. Microsoft rose 51%, and Apple’s 34% gain has it sitting close to a $3 trillion market capitalization. And by virtue of their immense size, Big Tech stocks were the top six contributors to the S&P’s performance.