Inflationary Pressures

  • Some quotes on the topic courtesy of The Transcript.
  • “…we do expect some significant cost inflation in the year…The top two inflation drivers for this year are expected to be pulp and polymer based materials. Together those two input costs represent more than half of the inflation outlook.” – Kimberly-Clark (KMB) CFO Maria Henry 
  • “We expect prices to be positive based on all the inflation that we are seeing.” – 3M (MMM) CFO Monish Patolawala 
  • “…the transportation market is very tight. Spot market rates have increased by more than 30%…And just a bit more color on commodities…we see headwinds on our major commodities right now. But not only on our major commodities, but some of the smaller purchases of raw and packing materials that we use across the rest of our business.” – Church & Dwight (CHD) EVP-Global Operations Rick Spann 
  • “…we are starting to see a little bit of inflationary pressure, particularly around freight and a little bit in the supply chain as well.” – Danaher (DHR) CFO Matt McGrew 

74 NYT Facts

  • “Each day, our editors collect the most interesting, striking or delightful facts to appear in articles throughout the paper. Here are 74 from the past year that were the most revealing.”
  • Great list from NYT. A few examples:
  • Brooks Brothers, which Henry Sands Brooks founded in Manhattan in 1818, is the oldest apparel brand in continuous operation in the United States.
  • Often, the screams we hear in movies and TV are created by doubles and voice actors. One stock scream is so well-used it’s got a name, the Wilhelm. It’s in hundreds of films.

Parable of the Pottery Class

  • The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.” (Source).
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