October 2020

The McRib is Back! (Thank low Pork Prices)

McDonald’s announced the McRib is BACK! One of my favorite examples of a company’s option to “delay” a project is the McRib. The McRib isn’t launched randomly: It’s after McDonald’s could get Pork cheap!

Here is a chart of Pork (Swine) prices over the last few months.

When the economy crashed in March, swine prices went with it, going from $70 to $50. The price stayed there for months – allowing McDonald’s to buy pork cheap.

Given prices have now increased, I suspect this will be for a “limited time” – i.e. until McDonald’s runs out of cheap swine.

You can read about other instances of this here.

By Christopher Schwarz, ago

More COVID Records

Another day, another 7-day average case record for the US and the EU. France, Italy, UK, and Germany all have started partial or full lockdowns again, which will have economic and financial implications (see stock market today).

I think it’s important to think about what success looks like. I have added South Korea and Australia case counts to the graph. Note these are population adjusted since the US has more population.

You can see the number of cases is simply tiny compared to the US. Australia had a little spike in July and August and put that out quickly. But we haven’t been nearly as successful. And now we will pay the price, both economically and socially.

By Christopher Schwarz, ago