U.S. economy shrank at a 1.4% annual rate in the first quarter

Re:U.S. economy shrank at a 1.4% annual rate in the first qu... by BitwiseFool on Thursday April 28, 2022 @09:29AM (#31192191)

Something about that $4 Billion figure seems exaggerated, intangible, or simply an on-paper calculation. Assuming a truck carrying food is 6 hours late, how much spoilage does that actually cause? Would a pileup on an interstate causing an hours long delay likewise have its "impact" calculated to be in the tens of millions?

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Re:U.S. economy shrank at a 1.4% annual rate in the first qu... by bluejekyll on Thursday April 28, 2022 @09:38AM (#31192274)

I haven’t seen a $4 billion number, $9 billion is the total trade. $240 million is the estimate lost due to spoilage, and the longest waiting time looks to have been 30 hours: https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-gov-greg-abbott-truck-...

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Re:U.S. economy shrank at a 1.4% annual rate in the first qu... by s1artibartfast on Thursday April 28, 2022 @10:33AM (#31192937)

I don't know about fruit, but nuts like pistachios will spoil after 12 hours in a truck. You have a finite time before picking and processing before they rot, and a tractor trailer is about the worst environment as the the load can cook itself from the waste heat of biological activity in a large poorly ventilated volume.

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