Speaker 1: Well, as the United States gets closer to the 4th of July holiday,
a number of different shortages are threatening the holiday, I guess
if you want to think about it in the most standard way. But this is a good opportunity
to talk about a number of the different areas in which there are shortages. I think it's important
for context, why are we talking about this? We're talking about this because, number one,
I have no interest in hiding shortages just because Joe Biden is president. That's a common
one that I'm accused of. And secondly, none of these things have anything to do with Joe Biden,
particularly when you consider the global nature of many of these shortages. A few things to be
aware of. There is a structure shortage. This is a I guess I'm not wrong in calling it an Asian chili
sauce. I think that's the way it's most typically described. And there is
a lot of breathless coverage of the looming Sriracha shortage. I love Sriracha. But for me,
first of all, by the way, if you really it's just the primary structure that there is a shortage of.
So there are all sorts of other Saroja brands as well. You can also look at other hot sauces,
but indeed there is the expectation that the country's most popular brand of Serratia will
be in a shortage coming soon for you. Fong Foods, the California based producer of this sauce, says
they will have to scale back production due to an abysmal spring crop of Mexican red jalapenos.
Nothing to do with Joe Biden, Joe. But it is not Joe Biden's fault
that in Mexico they've had a bad crop of red jalapenos. Okay. With 4th of July coming up.
Mustard a global mustard shortage is looming ahead of summer barbecues, as reported by Axios.
Um. Yeah. A few of the largest mustard brands like Kraft Heinz say they don't expect shortages,
but there are some mustards which will be experiencing stock issues.
I love a good mustard. I'm partial to grain mustard and brown deli mustard. I'm just not
big on the yellow stuff. It sort of seems a little bit cartoonish to me. And I know baseball
fans won't react kindly to that. No, but in all seriousness, I love mustard. There will be mustard
available, maybe just not the one that you like. More seriously, there is a medical contrast,
dye shortage and medical contrast. Dyes are used for a number of different imaging procedures and
surgical procedures. I talked recently of my girlfriend's perforation that she had, and one
of the ways that they confirm the perforation has been fixed is they use one of these contrast dyes
under imaging and then see if any of the dye escapes where it's supposed to be. These are
very important medical materials. It's used in diagnosing and treating stroke,
aneurysm, cardiac conditions. These are essential to hospitals in many ways.
There is a delay happening there. The global chip shortage will continue. This predates Joe Biden
and has nothing to do with Joe Biden. And industry experts don't believe there will be relief on the
chip shortage until 2023. There is a nurse shortage anecdotally Shreveport, Louisiana,
warning of a nurse shortage. But this is happening nationally in many different places. When we've
recently been in the hospital for the birth and for everything else that's been going on,
many traveling nurses who just like, they'll they'll they'll literally come up from like
Baltimore to New York City for a week and just work a week in a hospital unfamiliar to them, then
go back down to Baltimore. A lot of that going on to try to deal with the shortage in some areas
that is expected to continue. And then lastly for me, there's other shortages as well. But lastly,
for what I'll talk about today, a pilot shortage could lead to flight delays and cancelations.
And we have already seen that. Already seen that. So this is a major, large issue
which we will continue to follow. Hopefully everybody's 4th of July will be okay.