Category: Business

This report shares an analysis of the effects of natural and man-made shocks in Yemen’s agri-food system. It analyses the results of a field assessment conducted from November 2020 to February 2021 .

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is implementing a project to contribute to data collection and analysis linked to shocks affecting agricultural livelihoods and food security, in order to inform evidence-based programming in selected countries. The objective is to assess the effects of these shocks on the agri-food system, which includes crops, livestock and fishing, food supply, livelihoods and food security of rural populations. Information is collected from primary sources of the production process: producer households, traders or marketers, inputs suppliers, extension officers and other key informants.

This report covers the second round of data collected through the FAO monitoring system in Yemen. A first round was collected earlier in 2020, followed by an initial report published in March 2021.

The report was made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this report are the sole responsibility of FAO and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States of America Government.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

The coronavirus pandemic will cost the global tourism sector $2.0 trillion in lost revenue in 2021, the U.N.’s tourism body said Monday, calling the sector’s recovery “fragile” and “slow.”

The forecast from the Madrid-based World Tourism Organization comes as Europe is grappling with a surge in infections and as a new heavily mutated COVID-19 variant, dubbed Omicron, spreads across the globe.

International tourist arrivals will this year remain 70-75% below the 1.5 billion arrivals recorded in 2019 before the pandemic hit, a similar decline as in 2020, according to the body.

The global tourism sector already lost $2.0 trillion (1.78 trillion euros) in revenues last year due to the pandemic, according to the UNWTO, making it one of sectors hit hardest by the health crisis.

While the U.N. body charged with promoting tourism does not have an estimate for how the sector will perform next year, its medium-term outlook is not encouraging.

“Despite the recent improvements, uneven vaccination rates around the world and new Covid-19 strains” such as the Delta variant and Omicron “could impact the already slow and fragile recovery,” it said in a statement.

The introduction of fresh virus restrictions and lockdowns in several nations in recent weeks shows how “it’s a very unpredictable situation,” UNWTO head Zurab Pololikashvili told AFP.

“It’s a historical crisis in the tourism industry but again tourism has the power to recover quite fast,” he added ahead of the start of the WTO’s annual general assembly in Madrid on Tuesday.

“I really hope that 2022 will be much better than 2021.”

While international tourism has taken a hit from the outbreak of disease in the past, the coronavirus is unprecedented in its geographical spread.

In addition to virus-related travel restrictions, the sector is also grappling with the economic strain caused by the pandemic, the spike in oils prices and the disruption of supply chains, the UNWTO said.

Pololikashvili urged nations to harmonize their virus protocols and restrictions because tourists “are confused and they don’t know how to travel.”

International tourist arrivals “rebounded” during the summer season in the Northern Hemisphere thanks to increased travel confidence, rapid vaccination and the easing of entry restrictions in many nations, the UNWTO said.

“Despite the improvement in the third quarter, the pace of recovery remains uneven across world regions due to varying degrees of mobility restrictions, vaccination rates and traveller confidence,” it added.

Arrivals in some islands in the Caribbean and South Asia, and well as some destinations in southern Europe, came close to, or sometimes exceeded pre-pandemic levels in the third quarter.

Other countries, however, hardly saw any tourists at all, particularly in Asia and the Pacific, where arrivals were down 95% compared to 2019 as many destinations remained closed to non-essential travel.

A total of 46 destinations — 21% of all destinations worldwide — currently have their borders completely closed to tourists, according to the UNWTO.

A further 55 have their borders partially closed to foreign visitors, while just four nations have lifted all virus-related restrictions — Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Mexico.

The future of the travel sector will be in focus at the WTO annual general assembly, which will run until Friday.

The event — which brings together representatives from 159 members states of the U.N. body — was original scheduled to be held in Marrakesh.

But Morocco in late October decided not to host the event due to the rise in COVID-19 cases in many countries.

Before the pandemic, the tourism sector accounted for about 10% of the world’s gross domestic product and jobs.

Source: Voice of America

NEW YORK — Stocks sank Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly falling more than 1,000 points, as a new coronavirus variant first detected in South Africa appeared to be spreading across the globe. Investors were uncertain whether the variant could reverse months of progress at getting the COVID-19 pandemic under control.
The S&P 500 index dropped 106.84 points, or 2.3%, to close at 4,594.62. It was the worst day for Wall Street’s benchmark index since February.
The index was dragged lower by banks, travel companies and energy companies as investors tried to reposition to protect themselves financially from the new variant. The World Health Organization called the variant “highly transmissible.”
The price of oil fell about 13%, the biggest decline since early in the pandemic, amid worries of another slowdown in the global economy. That in turn dragged down energy stocks. Exxon shares fell 3.5% while Chevron fell 2.3%.
The blue chips closed down 905.04 points to end the day at 34,899.34. The Nasdaq Composite lost 353.57 points, or 2.2%, to 15,491.66.
Bond yields fall; banks hit
“Investors are likely to shoot first and ask questions later until more is known,” Jeffrey Halley of Oanda said in a report. That was evident from the action in the bond market, where the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.48% from 1.64% on Wednesday. As a result, banks took some of the heaviest losses. JPMorgan Chase dropped 3%.
There have been other variants of the coronavirus — the delta variant devastated much of the U.S. throughout the summer — and investors, public officials and the general public are jittery about any new variant that’s spreading. It’s been nearly two years since COVID-19 emerged, killing more than 5 million people around the globe so far.
The economic impacts of this variant were already being felt. The European Union and the U.K. both announced travel restrictions from southern Africa on Friday. After the market closed, the U.S. also put travel restrictions on those coming from South Africa as well as seven other African nations.
Airline stocks quickly sold off, with United Airlines dropping 9.6% and American Airlines falling 8.8%.
“COVID had seemingly been put in the rear-view mirror by financial markets until recently,” Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. “At the least, [the virus] is likely to continue throwing sand in the gears of the global economy in 2022, restraining the recovery [and] keeping kinks in the supply chain.”
Even Bitcoin got caught up in the selling. The digital currency dropped 8.4% to $54,179, according to CoinDesk.
In Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he is spending a holiday weekend, President Joe Biden said he wasn’t concerned about the market’s decline.
“They always do when there’s something on COVID [that] arises,” Biden said.
‘Fear gauge’
One sign of Wall Street’s anxiety was the VIX, the market’s measurement of volatility that is sometimes referred to as its “fear gauge.” The VIX jumped 53.6% to a reading of 28.54, its highest reading since January, before the vaccines began to be widely distributed.
Fearful of more lockdowns and travel bans, investors moved money into companies that largely benefited from previous waves, like Zoom Communications for meetings or Peloton for at-home exercise equipment. Shares in both companies rose nearly 6%.
The coronavirus vaccine manufacturers were among the biggest beneficiaries of the emergence of this new variant and the subsequent investor reaction. Pfizer shares rose more than 6% while Moderna shares jumped more than 20%.
Merck shares fell 3.8%, however. While U.S. health officials said Merck’s experimental treatment of COVID-19 was effective, data showed the pill was not as effective at keeping patients out of the hospital as originally thought.
Investors are worried that the supply chain issues that have impacted global markets for months will worsen. Ports and freight yards are vulnerable and could be shut by new, localized outbreaks.

Source: Voice of America
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Persistently high prices for gasoline are frustrating many Americans and causing a political headache for the administration of President Joe Biden, but they also might be accelerating the process of transitioning the country to more widespread use of vehicles that run on renewable energy — particularly electricity.

Experts say that sales of electric vehicles, or EVs, tend to rise when fuel prices do, though they cautioned it’s difficult to draw a straight line from prices at the pump to car purchases.

“People buy electric cars for lots of reasons, so they’re not completely dependent on gas prices, but that’s certainly reinforcing it,” said Genevieve Cullen, president of the Electric Drive Transportation Association, a trade group representing manufacturers of electric vehicles.

An estimated 468,000 new EVs were sold in the U.S. from the beginning of the year through September, according to data collected by Atlas Public Policy, a group that tracks the market for EVs. That represents a 45% increase over the 323,000 EVs sold during the entirety of 2020.

Looking solely at the month of September 2021, U.S. consumers bought 57,000 new EVs. That was 63% more than the 35,000 sold in September of 2020, and a 90% increase over the 30,000 sold in September 2019.

Gas prices make EVs attractive

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of one kilowatt hour of electricity in the United States rose from 13.5 cents in October 2020 to 14.2 cents in October 2021, an increase of 5.2%. By contrast, the BLS found the average cost of a gallon of gas rose from $2.23 in October 2020 to $3.48 in October 2021, a 56.1% increase.

“High gas prices are tough on Americans driving gasoline vehicles,” said Luke Tonachel, director of clean vehicles and fuels for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The volatility in the global price of the oil used to make gasoline is a constant worry.

In the U.S., though, the structure of the electricity market keeps prices from increasing sharply.

“Electricity prices are regulated, and therefore quite stable,” said Tonachel. “An EV driver can expect to pay a quarter or less as much per mile as [someone] driving a gasoline vehicle.”

US EV sales expected to rise further

While electric vehicle sales are rising rapidly, the numbers begin from a low baseline. As recently as five years ago, EV sales accounted for less than 1% of new vehicles sold in the U.S. That figure has surged to what is expected to be about 4% this year, and the real increase is on the horizon.

LMC Automotive, which tracks vehicle sales and estimates the future of the market, projects that by 2030, EVs, including purely electric cars and plug-in hybrid cars that can run on both electricity and gasoline, will make up 34.2% of new vehicle sales in the United States.

That transition will continue, as the federal government increasingly crafts policies meant to bring the country in line with President Biden’s promise, made at the recent United Nations Climate Conference, to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to about half of their 2005 levels by 2030.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced this summer it would structure emissions guidelines for cars powered by internal combustion engines in order to “speed the transition of the light-duty vehicle fleet toward a zero emissions future.”

“We’re going to see the car market accelerate the shift to EVs when the U.S. EPA sets emission standards that zero out pollution from vehicles,” said Tonachel. “That’s ultimately what we need to address the climate crisis, and it will result in cheaper mobility, too.”

Another factor is the continued rollout of a network of charging stations across the country. The Energy Department currently lists more than 52,000 stations in the country, with upwards of 100,000 outlets. The infrastructure bill that President Biden recently signed into law contains $7.5 billion aimed at increasing that number by a factor of 10 within the next decade.

Broader future for renewables

There also is reason to believe that increased electrification of the transportation system will drive the adoption of renewables in other aspects of day-to-day life, as well. That’s because, as car battery technology continues to improve, it will make it easier and cheaper to store energy generated by wind and solar power sources.

“Electrification of transportation is the key to growing renewables in the power sector,” said Cullen, of the Electric Drive Transportation Association. “Because batteries are one of the few effective and portable ways to store electricity. They’ll enable utilities and other power generators to manage demand so that you can save up excess wind or solar.”

She added, “Battery storage is the path there. Electric transportation, this mobile electrical load, has the ability to be a grid asset.”

Source: Voice of America

DIZANGUÉ, CAMEROON — Cameroon’s largest lake, Lake Ossa, has been invaded by Salvinia molesta, an aquatic fern native to Brazil that hinders navigation, makes fishing impossible and blocks water access. To combat the spreading plant, a local aid group is training fishermen to harvest the fern and transform it into organic coal.
Florent Tsanga and other fishermen meet twice a week to remove what they can.
Since Salvinia molesta invaded Cameroon’s largest lake in 2016, Tsanga’s life has changed for the worse.
He said his children do not go to school because of the salvinia. When the lake was good, in the ’80s and ’90s, he said, the children went to school. But these days, he can’t afford it.
Lake Ossa is a wildlife reserve that’s home to freshwater turtles, crocodiles, manatees and more than 18 species of fish.
A local aid group has trained community fishermen to transform the salvinia into organic coal.
After the fern is collected, it is dried and burned. The resulting powder is mixed with other substances and then passed through a mold to create charcoal pieces for domestic use.
Because the aquatic plant grows back every seven days, the aid group is also experimenting with a biological solution — raising a weevil that will feed specifically on salvinia. The group has released the weevil in a pilot site in the lake.
They hope the insect will multiply, feed on the salvinia leaves, and produce larva that will attach to new plant growth.
“And birth is where the new leaves are coming out, and at that level, you have proteins that the plant uses to grow,” explained Aristide Kamla, founder of African Marine Mammal Conservation Organization. “The larva will hijack those proteins and therefore will stop the growth of the plant. So, not only the weevil will stop the growth of the plants, but it will also destroy the biomass already present.”
The Cameroon government has agreed to a pilot test of this biological solution but has not discounted other methods, said Sylvain Hector Ebog, the conservator of the Lake Ossa Wildlife Reserve.
“We would like to see the mechanical method applied as well as the biological control,” Ebog said, adding that biological control might take much longer. “We can apply both methods. We are looking for funding.”
While the fishermen in Lake Ossa are willing to sell the salvinia charcoal to make some money, they said they would rather see a solution to clean up the lake so that they can resume fishing.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON — The United States and five other countries said Tuesday they plan to tap their strategic oil reserves for refining into gasoline and other energy products in a coordinated effort to cut rising costs that their consumers are paying.
The White House said that over the coming months through April 2022 the U.S. would make 50 million barrels of oil available for sale to refiners from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve that currently holds 621 million barrels of oil in four salt caverns along the Gulf of Mexico coastline.
President Joe Biden, in an address at the White House, said it was the largest withdrawal from the oil reserves but cautioned that “it will take time” for motorists to realize any drop in gasoline prices at service stations.
“This is a problem not just in the U.S. but around the world,” Biden said, blaming oil-rich countries for not ramping up production enough to meet world demand.
The U.S. oil release by itself – and spread out over several months – may not make much difference in the cost of gasoline that American motorists are now paying – a national average of $3.40 a gallon (3.8 liters), which is the highest figure since 2014.
But an accurate possible cost reduction could not immediately be calculated because it was not known how much oil four of the other five countries – China, Japan, South Korea and Britain – plan to release from their reserves. India said it would release 5 million barrels.
Also, key oil producers in the Middle East, led by the 13-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, could cut their own production to offset any new oil on the world market from the six countries. Such an offsetting cut in the amount of oil on the world market could keep oil more or less at its current global Brent benchmark crude price of about $80 a barrel.
Before hearing the details of the U.S. oil release plan, Suhail Al-Mazrouei, energy minister of the United Arab Emirates, one of OPEC’s biggest producers, said he saw “no logic” in increasing UAE’s supply, Reuters reported.
The higher cost of gasoline and home heating for the coming winter months has contributed to the biggest inflation surge in consumer prices in the U.S. in 31 years – 6.2% at an annualized rate in October.
Higher energy and food costs have also led to sharply declining voter approval ratings for Biden 10 months into his four-year White House term and less than a year before congressional elections across the country. The high inflation rate is a distinct political worry for the Democratic president and his political allies in Congress as they try to hold on to their narrow control of both the Senate and House of Representatives.
In making the oil release announcement, the White House said, “American consumers are feeling the impact of elevated gas prices at the pump and in their home heating bills, and American businesses are, too, because oil supply has not kept up with demand as the global economy emerges from the pandemic.”
“That’s why President Biden is using every tool available to him to work to lower prices and address the lack of supply,” the statement said. “The president stands ready to take additional action, if needed, and is prepared to use his full authorities working in coordination with the rest of the world to maintain adequate supply as we exit the pandemic.”
Biden said his administration is also looking at potential price manipulation in oil and gas markets in a Federal Trade Commission investigation.
Biden said world oil prices have dropped in recent weeks by 10%, but “the price at the pump hasn’t budged a penny.”
The coordinated international release of oil would be the first since 2011, when the U.S. and 27 other countries replaced about 140 million barrels in output lost as a result of three months of conflict in Libya.
Under the U.S. oil release plan, the U.S., starting next month, will trade 32 million barrels of oil with buyers who will agree to send the same amount back to the government sometime between 2022 and 2024, to replenish the reserve.
The other 18 million barrels are being released as part of a previously authorized sale from the reserve, which the Energy Department is now moving to do earlier than first planned.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s signature Build Back Better package of climate and social spending passed the House of Representatives on Friday morning, 220-213, less than 24 hours after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) produced an analysis of the legislation finding that it would add a relatively modest $160 billion to the federal debt over the next 10 years.

The bill, which still must pass the narrowly divided Senate, dedicates more than half a trillion dollars to spending on measures to combat climate change, provides funding for universal pre-school, expands access to healthcare, and provides tax credits to families with children, among other things.

The rapid passage of the bill after the CBO announced the verdict on its costs underlines the importance of that agency to the legislative process in Washington, as well as lawmakers’ willingness to be flexible about how they read the agency’s analyses.

A significant number of Democrats who represent contested districts – enough to scuttle the bill if they had voted against it – had been concerned about the political impact of Republican claims that the bill would greatly expand the federal debt. Last week, these mostly moderate Democrats told Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that they would not vote for the bill without a CBO analysis that showed it was fully paid for.

Detailed ‘budget score’

The CBO is a non-partisan federal agency within the legislative branch created in 1974 that is considered by many economists the gold standard for analyzing the budgetary impact of proposed legislation and its long-term impact on the federal debt.

On Thursday afternoon, the CBO began releasing its analysis of the bill, known as a “budget score.” It found that the combination of spending and tax breaks contained in the package add up to $2.4 trillion and that elements that would raise revenue or reduce spending add up to $2.27 trillion.

One element of the CBO report caused some confusion because of the way the numbers were presented. The official release said that the bill would result in a $367 billion increase in the debt over 10 years, because it did not account for the revenue effects of the increased IRS enforcement. In a different statement, the agency estimated $207 billion of increased revenue related to IRS enforcement, leaving the ultimate budget deficit increase at $160 billion over a decade.

A flexible reading of the CBO

In a political climate where Democrats and Republicans generally distrust each other, the CBO is still seen as above the fray, delivering non-partisan analysis. The agency’s judgment that the addition to the debt would average out to just $16 billion per year meant that the legislation does not officially pay for itself.

That’s where the flexibility in reading CBO analysis kicked in.

A key element of the bill is an $80 billion increase in funding for the Internal Revenue Service to enforce the nation’s tax laws. The White House and a number of outside groups, including a bipartisan coalition of former IRS commissioners, had projected that the investment would return $400 billion in increased tax revenue over a decade. But CBO only estimated a $207 billion return.

“CBO is notoriously cautious about predicting revenue increases from IRS enforcement,” said William A. Galston, a senior fellow in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies program.

“Estimating revenues from enforcement is an art not a science,” Galston said. “Bottom line, nobody knows for sure.”

It was that uncertainty, and the generally accepted understanding that CBO is very cautious about estimating tax revenue, that gave all but one of the moderate Democrats the wiggle room they needed to throw their support behind the bill.

“They took the position, after the CBO score came out, that it was good enough,” said Galston. “It enabled them to make a good faith claim that the bill was completely paid for.”

Republicans disagree

Not surprisingly, Republicans in the House chose to take a much more literal reading of the CBO’s analysis, and slammed the Democrats for passing a bill that will add to the national debt.

“This is the single most reckless and irresponsible spending in the history of this country,” House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy declared.

McCarthy’s comment came during a marathon speech that stretched for more than eight hours, ending shortly before 6 a.m. on Friday. The overnight monologue took advantage of a loophole in House rules that allows the leader of either of the parties to take unlimited floor time, and forced Democrats to delay a vote they had hoped to take on Thursday.

CBO’s sway in the Senate unclear

The CBO score may have been enough to convince moderate Democrats in the House of Representatives to vote in favor of the bill, but the problems it faces in the Senate go deeper than the legislation’s effect on the federal deficit.

The Democrats have only 50 votes in the 100-seat Senate, and must rely on Vice President Kamala Harris to cast a vote in the event of a tie. That means Democrats cannot afford to lose any votes on the bill.

The most prominent member of the party likely to break from the pack is West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who has been publicly skeptical of specific parts of the bill, and has been more generally concerned that an increase in government spending will lead to further increases in inflation.

Manchin’s constituents tend to be older and more likely than most Americans to be on a fixed income. That makes them especially vulnerable to price inflation, which was recently measured at an annual rate of 6.2%, the highest in more than 30 years.

Source: Voice of America

For weeks, governments and policymakers across the world have been suggesting the recent spikes in consumer and energy prices are transitory and rising inflation will ease, once pandemic-related chain-supply disruptions and labor shortages are resolved and the global economy reboots.

But recent figures suggest inflation may persist for some time, prompting worries about an explosive cost-of-living crisis, which could roil the domestic politics of countries and disrupt the electoral plans of incumbent parties and their leaders.

Central bankers have been saying the price increases of goods, rent, food and energy are one-offs, the consequences of economies struggling to recover from the induced coma of COVID-19 lockdowns and pandemic restrictions. But new data on inflation from around the world have exceeded forecasts, and central bankers are now being criticized for failing to act to restrain surging prices.

Bank of England stands pat

Central banks are coming under mounting pressure to raise interest rates but are nervous about acting too hastily and reversing recovery by reducing stimulus measures. The Bank of England earlier this month decided not to raise interest rates despite its governor, Andrew Bailey, earlier saying bankers “will have to act and must do so if we see a risk, particularly to medium-term inflation and to medium-term inflation expectations.”

Recent figures show inflation in Britain has now jumped to its highest level in nearly a decade, with the consumer price index climbing 4.2% in October from a year earlier. The Bank of England has an official inflation target of 2%. The bank’s decision not to raise its key rate, leaving it at 0.1%, confounded the financial markets and sent the pound plunging in value, and the inaction is still being criticized by many economic commentators.

They include Neil Wilson of Markets.com, who says the governor’s “credibility is at stake.”

Likewise, in the United States, the Federal Reserve is coming under fire over rising inflation. Earlier this week, Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz and an influential commentator, said he thought America’s central bank was losing credibility over its long-standing view that inflation is transitory.

“I think the Fed is losing credibility. I’ve argued that it is really important to re-establish a credible voice on inflation and this has massive institutional, political and social implications,” he said.

El-Erian told CNBC-TV the Federal Reserve’s inflation stance risked undermining President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, warning that policymakers should not forget that those on low incomes are the hardest hit by rising consumer prices.

In the US

The rapid increase in household living costs already is being felt by Americans.

According to a series of opinion polls conducted by the pollster YouGov for The Economist magazine, 46% of Americans said they believed the state of the economy was “getting worse,” with only 19% saying it was “getting better.”

In the U.S., the consumer price index rose 6.2% in the 12 months ending in October, the highest rate in three decades. Americans said rising wages were not keeping up with rapidly increasing prices. Fifty-six percent of the respondents to YouGov said they were having trouble affording fuel, 48% could not easily pay their rent or mortgages and 45% said they were struggling to feed their families.

Some member states of the European Union also are facing a cost-of-living crisis.

Romania reported in October an annual inflation rate of 6.5%, the highest increase in consumer prices among EU member states in southeast Europe, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office. Eurozone inflation is running at 4.1%, more than double the European Central Bank’s target.

Increases seen as transitory

This week, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde conceded that Eurozone inflation likely would remain elevated for longer than had been expected. She remained wedded to the idea that price increases were likely transitory, and she was still forecasting inflation would drop below the bank’s 2% target in the medium term.

“We still see inflation moderating in the next year, but it will take longer to decline than originally expected,” she told lawmakers at the European Parliament.

Some economists in Europe, however, question her optimism. They say the pandemic is far from over, pointing to a fourth wave prompting rising cases across much of the continent and the prospect of a return of economically damaging retractions. Germany has declared a state of emergency and Austria has announced a full lockdown to begin Monday, becoming the first European country to go back under a full lockdown and the first to make COVID-19 vaccination compulsory.

Germany’s coronavirus situation is so grave that a lockdown, including for the vaccinated, cannot be ruled out, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Friday.

“We are in a national emergency,” he told a news conference.

The path back to normality is now again murky for Europe, and economists say the impact of a fourth wave of the coronavirus on household budgets is going to be significant — this at a time when the price of almost everything is going through the roof.

Source: Voice of America