Also on today’s menu:
Job-Switching Among Inflationary Pressures
Addressing Trucker Protests
NATO Considers Battlegroups In Eastern Europe
Vail Corporation, which operates the state-owned Mount Sunapee Ski Area, as well as Attitash, Wildcat, and Crotched Mountain in New Hampshire and several others around the country, is facing a possible class-action lawsuit for overselling its season passes which are good for admission to multiple mountains, leading to long lift lines as well as traffic congestion. There also are complaints about understaffing it resorts, but that can be traced to the United States’ reduction in the number of foreign worker visas. A shortage of employees from other countries has hurt a number of tourism-based and hospitality businesses that do not pay enough to attract U.S. workers.
Vail operates Sunapee under a 20-year lease with the state, signed in 2018, after the first private company to operate Sunapee, the Mueller family, sold its holdings to the Colorado-based company. The state uses its income from the Sunapee lease to pay for improvements at the state’s other ski area, at Cannon Mountain.
Skier visits have been especially high this year, in part due to pent-up demand after COVID restrictions and in part due to the snowfall that has created good conditions for the sport. The prospect of even more skiers during the February school vacations weeks has people especially concerned about crowded conditions on the slopes.
Job-Switching Among Inflationary Pressures
Increased government assistance during the pandemic, along with the new emphasis on rebuilding the United States’ infrastructure and dealing with climate change, have brought back inflationary pressures, but that is just part of the problem. Pent-up demand for goods and services has created supply shortages, and the so-called “freedom convoys” that have blocked highways to protest efforts to control coronavirus transmission are also pushing up inflation. Then there is the pressure by workers switching jobs.
A study by the Chicago Federal Reserve estimates that job-switching by people looking for higher job satisfaction and higher wages accounted for about 20 percent of the price growth in 2021. Nearly 4 million Americans per month quit their jobs last year in search of better pay and more flexibility.
Researchers say the “Great Resignation” — if it continues — will keep the inflationary pressure on.
Addressing Trucker Protests
Years ago, the Central Intelligence Agency instigated trucker strikes as a way of bringing down the democratically elected government in Venezuela, and now the groups opposing measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus are staging trucker strikes in Canada that could cripple both Canada’s and the United States’ efforts to solve the supply-chain problems that have already hurt the automotive industry and others. If trucker strikes spread to the U.S. as some have indicated, it could have devastating effects on the economy and prolong the disruptions caused by the pandemic.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took the extraordinary measure of invoking the Emergencies Act, which is intended to deal with threats to “sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity” to cut off protesters’ funding and reinforce police actions against the truckers. The last time the Emergencies Act was invoked was under Trudeau’s father, Pierre Trudeau, in October 1970 when he put troops on the streets to deal with Quebec separatists who had kidnapped a diplomat and a provincial cabinet minister.
While civil liberties groups have condemned Trudeau’s actions, many Canadians have been calling upon the government to do something to address the disruption, which is affecting jobs and daily life.
NATO Considers Battlegroups In Eastern Europe
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is considering an expansion of battlegroups into countries surrounding Russia to combat Russian aggression — or what President Vladimir Putin claims to be defensive action because of NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe.
NATO defense ministers are planning to establish multinational battlegroups in Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary if Russia should invade Ukraine — an action that some say could occur on Wednesday.
Reuters quoted a “senior NATO diplomat” as saying the organization may want the flexibility of escalating or de-escalating, depending on what Russia does. Putin, on the other hand, claims he is amassing troops around the border of Ukraine because NATO is continuing to expand its influence eastward despite assurances during the 1990s that there would be no expansion toward Russia if the former Soviet Union allowed the reunification of Germany.
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