Friday, September 02, 2016

Ships not banks

There's an ongoing crisis in global trade due to the bankruptcy of Korean shipper Hanjin (Reuters) --

Freight rates have also surged. Hanjin's collapse has come during the shipping industry's busiest season ahead of the year-end holidays. "The cost of shipping is now jumping through the roof and carriers are filing requests for a full increase in rates from Sept. 1," said Paul Tsui, managing director of the Janel Group in Hong Kong, a freight forwarding and logistics firm. He added that air freight volumes would probably rise to replace urgent orders stranded in ports or at sea. Hanjin accounts for 7.8 percent of trans-Pacific trade volume for the U.S. market and has a global client base. Of 8,281 owners of goods to be transported as of late August, 847 were South Korean firms, according to government data.

Yet there are no demands for bailouts, panic meetings "before the Asian markets open," or any of that other stuff from when banks were constantly needing infusions of public money. Does it reveal that moving around real goods that people actually use is mere economic background noise, but moving around financial quantities can't be undermined under any circumstances?

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