Wells Fargo CEO and President Charles Scharf, during the annual Milken Institute Global Conference, said he believes that the supply chain crisis will continue roughly “six to 12 months” longer.
“The realities of things like… wage pressures… supply chain pressures… all these things are going to continue to contribute to this wage inflation that we’re seeing,” Scharf said to Yahoo Finance.
“That’s all very, very real… all these things will level out. Supply chains will get solved, I personally just think it’s going to be six-to-12 months,” Scharf added when talking about the supermarkets forecasting higher prices.
Nationwide supermarket chains, such as Albertsons last week, told analysts that they expect to see prices rise for food items and everyday goods due to the supply chain crisis, in addition to small businesses being forced to raise prices. A small business owner in Dallas said, “It’s a mess, and there’s no quick fix… Prices have definitely increased, and they seem to still be increasing.”
United Airlines is raising prices as well. Last week CEO Scott Kirby said, “Airfares are going to come back from the really, really low levels they got to during the pandemic.”
One of the causes of the skyrocketing prices is the shipping costs. Over the last year, the price to ship a container from Asia to California has risen from $3,800 in 2020 to $17,000 in October of 2021.
People ride on a tour boat beneath cargo containers stacked on a container ship at the Port of Los Angeles, the nation’s busiest container port, on October 15, 2021, in San Pedro, California.(Mario Tama/Getty Images)
However, in the midst of a months-long supply chain crisis, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s whereabouts have been questioned. Politico’s West Wing Playbook confirmed Buttigieg was “lying low.”
The report said the administration “didn’t previously announce it, but Buttigieg’s office told West Wing Playbook that the secretary has actually been on paid leave since mid-August to spend time with his husband, Chasten, and their two newborn babies.”
Chief shipping analyst at a shipping trade group, Copenhagen-based BIMCO, previously told Yahoo Finance, “We expect… strained supply chains to last until the early parts of 2023. … We are basically seeing a global all-but-breakdown of the supply chains from end-to-end.”
“When inventory levels get lower, who’s going to get the shipment versus who’s not? Who’s able to spend? Who’s able to pay for the increase in wages?” Scharf explained. “It’s something that we’ve got to watch and continue to figure out how we help them.”
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.
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