(FREE) PAINE IN THE MORNING: What you need to know this Tuesday – August 2, 2022

Here’s what you need to know today, Tuesday – August 2, 2022.

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Spam Locked Up Due to Inflation, Crime in NYC: ‘This Has Gone Too Far’ – The plague of inflation and criminal activity in New York City has caused one store to lock up its Spam.

Inside the Duane Reade drug store at the Port Authority bus depot, the $3.99 cans were spotted sitting in anti-theft boxes, the New York Post reported Saturday. – READ MORE

Biden Claims Legislative Deal On His Agenda Won’t Raise Taxes On People Making Less Than $400K; Report Says Otherwise – President Joe Biden claimed over the weekend that the so-called Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 would not raise taxes on those making less than $400,000 per year, but a non-partisan organization that crunched the numbers says it will.

“The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will lower health care costs for millions of Americans,” Biden claimed in a tweet Sunday afternoon. “And, for the first time in a long time, make the largest corporations pay their fair share without any new taxes on people making under $400,000 a year.” – READ MORE

Cargo Crisis: Port Congestion Shifts East, Hits New Record – The Biden administration has claimed credit for easing the backlog of cargo ships at Los Angeles and Long Beach, but the problem merely shifted east, and the cargo jam is now at record levels if East Coast ports are included. – READ MORE

Amazon Cuts 100,000 Employees From Workforce In A Single Quarter – Amazon, one of the largest tech employers in the world, has revealed that it is now hiring at the slowest pace since 2019 and has cut over 100,000 employees globally in the June quarter, likely due to the dramatic economic slowdown since 2021. It is the largest workforce cut in a single quarter in the history of the company. The layoffs are part of an increasing trend of protecting the bottom line within the tech industry. The cuts likely played a large role in Amazon’s recent revenues beat and their rosy profit projections for the third quarter, though it still lost a net $2 billion in the second quarter.

The more employees lose their jobs, the more healthy the company appears to be when shareholders examine quarterly earnings; it is inevitable that layoffs will continue. There have been over 30,000 job cuts by tech companies in the US in the past few months alone, and unemployment claims have climbed to 8-month highs. – READ MORE

San Francisco Real Estate Magnate Robbed At Gunpoint, Fears City ‘On Path Of Decline We May Never Recover From’ – The chief executive of the world’s largest industrial landlord was robbed outside his San Francisco mansion last month and called on the mayor to address the “absolutely unacceptable” rise in violent crime in the city.

Hamid Moghadam, CEO of San Francisco-based Prologis, told the San Francisco Business Times that several men robbed him at gunpoint outside his home on June 26, taking his Patek Philippe watch. The robbery happened in the Pacific Heights neighborhood where tech investor Peter Thiel, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have homes. – READ MORE

Germany’s biggest cities prepare for looming energy crisis by shutting off warm water, limiting heat, and switching off lighting – Some of Germany’s biggest cities are preparing for an energy crunch this winter by shutting off warm water, limiting heat, and switching off lighting.

The German city of Hanover is attempting to reduce its energy consumption by 15%. – READ MORE

‘No Immediate Solution’ As New Mexico Town Has Only 50 Days Of Drinking Water Left – The city of Las Vegas, New Mexico, has less than two months of drinking water after a massive wildfire contaminated a river the town pulls from, according to local news KOAT 7.

Not to be confused with Las Vegas, Nevada, the 13,000-person city in San Miguel County relies solely on the now contaminated Gallinas River, which is full of ash and debris after the Calf Canyon-Hermits Peak Fire. – READ MORE

‘No Immediate Solution’ As New Mexico Town Has Only 50 Days Of Drinking Water Left – The city of Las Vegas, New Mexico, has less than two months of drinking water after a massive wildfire contaminated a river the town pulls from, according to local news KOAT 7.

Not to be confused with Las Vegas, Nevada, the 13,000-person city in San Miguel County relies solely on the now contaminated Gallinas River, which is full of ash and debris after the Calf Canyon-Hermits Peak Fire. – READ MORE

Spanish Prime Minister Proposes Ditching Neckties to Save Energy – Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez made a bizarre proposal for people to ditch neckties in order to save energy in the country.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Sánchez proposed that his fellow citizens adopt a casual dress code every Friday in order to conserve energy while providing few details as to how the plan would help. – READ MORE

US Frack Growth Constrained In “Perfect Storm” – Last week, Halliburton Co.’s CEO Jeff Miller warned hydraulic fracturing equipment is in short supply and could hamper fracking growth. Another oil/gas executive echoed the same warning this week and said bottlenecks could persist through 2023.

“Availability of frac fleets is one of main bottlenecks impeding oil and natural as production growth for the next 18 months,” Robert Drummond, chief executive officer of fracking firm NexTier Oilfield Solutions, told Reuters. – READ MORE

Hawaii Electricity Prices To Skyrocket As Final Shipment Of Coal Arrives – Hawaii is receiving its final shipment of coal this week, which Gov. David Ige called a huge step forward in the state’s transition to clean energy. What he meant was that local are about to pay a lot more for basic essentials.

A law put in place a couple of years ago will finally shut down the island’s last coal burning power plant. And since coal is the dirtiest * but cheapest – source of power for Oahu, it means that all else equal, power prices are about to skyrocket. – READ MORE

“Paving The Road To Hell”: Digital ID Systems Could Lead To Severe, Irreversible Human Rights Violations – The authors of a new report on digital identity systems warned “the actual and potential” human rights violations arising from the digital ID model can be “severe and potentially irreversible.”

The 100-page report — “Paving the Road to Hell? A Primer on the Role of the World Bank and Global Networks in Promoting Digital ID” — published by New York University’s (NYU) Center for Human Rights and Global Justice urged human rights organizations to heed the threats posed by a global push for digital IDs. – READ MORE