What expensive sulfur means for your dinner table
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means → mean → table
You're reading a newsletter from The Indicator from Planet Money.
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You → read → Money
Once a week, we curate our favorite stories and insights on business, finance, economics and why they matter.
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they → curate → business
If you're wealthy, it might be a little easier to take candy meant for a child.
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it → take → child
This is one takeaway from a 2012 paper titled "Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior" that just won the Ig Nobel Prize for economics.
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that → title → economics
It highlights work that will 1) make you laugh and then 2) make you think.
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you → highlight → work
Among the paper's examples, wealthier individuals were found to cut off other vehicles more often, cheat more often in a dice game for money, AND take more candy from a jar explicitly labeled for children.
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individuals → find → children
If you're wealthy, I guess the rules of society suddenly don't apply.
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rules → guess → society
Coming up, what expensive sulfur means for your dinner table, how low oil supply is becoming harder to ignore, and how Lego measures up to Hollywood.
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Lego → come → Hollywood
News We're Watching
1) The oil crisis isn't going away
What To Know:
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crisis → watch → What
The Gulf continues to send much less oil to the world than before the Iran war.
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Gulf → continue → war
Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline that bypassed the Strait of Hormuz got shut down last week after drone attacks coming from Iraq.
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that → bypass → Iraq
If it doesn't come online within a month, it could have a seismic impact, keeping more than 100 million barrels of oil from international markets.
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it → come → markets
Already, crude oil prices in the U.S. have shot up in the past few weeks.
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prices → shoot → weeks
For more than a year, stockpiles of oil have made this seem like less of a crisis than it is, couching gas prices, but they're running out.
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they → make → prices
Now, The Wall Street Journal reports the "Great Fuel Crisis" that execs have warned about for months is finally here.
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execs → report → months
What does this change?
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this → change → What
: Even if the Strait of Hormuz fully reopened tomorrow, oil prices aren't just going to pop down to normal right away.
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prices → reopen → Hormuz
Heightened prices are likely to stick around for a while as the market resets.
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market → stick → while
Making things worse, backups available to cushion oil prices have been working on overdrive, and now many are at their limits.
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many → make → limits
For example, the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve could be used as a source to transition us back to a higher oil supply if the global taps are turned back on.
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taps → use → supply
But it's at its lowest level since 1982 and will take months, if not years, to refill.
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it → take → months
Helima Croft with RBC Capital, an investment bank, told CNBC U.S. refiners are operating at 98% capacity.
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refiners → tell → capacity
In other words, even if more oil becomes available to be refined, there's no spare capacity to handle it.
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oil → become → it
2) Expensive sulfur may be another thorn in the side of your dinner table bill - AgWeb
What To Know: Sulfur is needed in fertilizer, which, of course, is needed to grow your food.
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which → know → food
But the price of it has gone haywire.
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price → go → it
Spot prices in July saw a ton of sulfur go for more than $1,000 per metric ton.
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ton → see → ton
A spokesman for Mosaic Company, which produces phosphate fertilizer, told AgWeb the prices are SO high that phosphate fertilizer use is expected to drop significantly.
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use → produce → AgWeb
Mosaic confirmed with The Indicator that they have already idled two facilities in Louisiana, impacting 300 families.
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they → confirm → families
There's no single number connecting high sulfur prices to food inflation, but Oxford Economics, pointing to higher diesel and fertilizer prices, sees global food prices going up another 4.8% in 2027.
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prices → be → 2027
But the U.S. produces its OWN sulfur!!:
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U.S. → produce → sulfur
Several countries in the Middle East, including Iran, are big suppliers of sulfur, but it's stuck behind the closed Strait of Hormuz.
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it → include → Hormuz
Russia is also a major producer, but its exports are banned to many countries.
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exports → ban → countries
Now, other countries in need of sulfur are coming to U.S. markets.
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countries → come → markets
All this is causing prices to increase, including for Mosaic.
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prices → cause → Mosaic
So when food prices get higher in 2027, you can tell your friends about this weird mechanic.
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you → get → mechanic
Today's Indicator: The cost of preventing car theft
If you HAVEN'T listened: For decades, cameras and cops alike have been capturing license plate numbers of offending vehicles.
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cameras → prevent → vehicles
"Black SUV headed to I-9, here's an impossibly grainy image" (my own made-up scenario).
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scenario → head → I-9
Flock cameras have revolutionized the game by adding machine learning to the mix.
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cameras → revolutionize → mix
If you're searching for that Black SUV headed down I-9, these AI-powered cameras can tap into a very rich database.
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cameras → search → database
…and 23 more, not listed.
The Aporia
