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The effects of President Donald Trump’s tariff policies are already appearing at America’s busiest port, which says shortages could begin showing up on store shelves in as early as five to seven weeks if new deals aren’t made. The Port of Los Angeles, the busiest seaport for container freight in North America, is expecting about a third of its import volume to drop next week, its executive director Gene Seroka says, and CEOs are telling him they’re putting imports on hold because of uncertainty and because Trump’s tariffs are too expensive. “CEOs are telling me, ‘Hit the pause, I’m not going to import any more at these kind of prices. Let’s wait and see,'” Seroka recently said on Bloomberg Surveillance. “Retailers are saying we’ve got about five to seven weeks of normal inventory in the country right now, then we start to see spot shortages if it goes on much beyond this.” Even if the Trump administration reaches deals to lower tariffs, it would take about a month for container freight ships to be repositioned, loaded, and arrive in the U.S., Seroka said, which could impact spring and summer apparel and back-to-school sales. Already, Trump’s tariffs are having an impact on hiring, Seroka said, with CEOs telling him hiring and capital investments are now off the table. And at the Port of L.A., fewer container freights means less work for dock workers and truckers. “Every four containers mean a job, so when we start dialing this back, it’s less job opportunity,” he said. The U.S. economy shrank in the first quarter of 2025, and Trump’s tariffs have added uncertainty for small businesses and publicly traded companies alike. Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview that aired Sunday that he thought “the good parts” of the economy can be attributed to him and “the bad parts” can be attributed to former President Joe Biden. “Ultimately, I take responsibility for everything, but I’ve only just been here for a little over three months.” “The tariffs have just started kicking in and we’re doing really well,” he said. “We’re going to be a very rich country.”
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E-Commerce
Warren Buffett’s announcement Saturday that he would be retiring as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway came as a surprise to lots of people, including the person who was elected to succeed him the next day. Greg Abel has been Buffett’s right-hand man for many years and the public heir apparent for the past five, but Buffett, in making his announcement, said he hadn’t told Abel the moment was coming. Buffett, 94, will stay on as chairman at Berkshire Hathaway, but by the end of this year, Abel will be in the driver’s seatand will have a big legacy to follow. Buffett took over Berkshire Hathaway in 1965. Things began to take off in 1978, when he convinced his friend Charlie Munger to come on board. Together, the two created a company that was the envy of the investing world. The price of Berkshire Class B shares (NYSE: BRK-B), the most widely held shares of the company, has gone up more than 2,000% since they began trading in 1996. The price of Class A shares (NYSE: BRK-A), held by Buffett and institutional shareholders, is up 42,413% since they began trading in 1985. Abel is fairly well known to people who closely follow Berkshire Hathaway, but he’s less familiar to people who only know Buffett. Here’s a look at the man who will try to fill Warren Buffett’s shoes. Who is Greg Abel? Abel, 62, currently serves as vice chair of non-insurance operations at Berkshire. He’s also the chair of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, which Buffett called one of the company’s four “jewels” in his 2021 shareholder letter. (The other three are Berkshire’s property and casualty insurance businesses, Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, and the company’s stake in Apple.) He has been the designated successor to Buffett for at least four years and has joined Buffett onstage at the company’s investor meeting for the past several years, even before Munger’s death in November 2023. Away from the office, Abel is a huge hockey fan and serves as assistant volunteer coach for his son’s team in his hometown of Des Moines, Iowa. He’s said to have a quick wit and nurtures strong personal relationships. “Hes not loud or bombastic, but hes 500% friendly,” Mark Oman, a retired Wells Fargo executive and friend of Abel’s told Fortune. What is Greg Abel’s background? Abel started his career at the PricewaterhouseCoopers consulting firm in Canada, eventually moving to the San Francisco office. He joined CalEnergy in 1992, which six years later would acquire Des Moines-based MidAmerican Energy Holdings (which would eventually be renamed Berkshire Hathaway Energy). He began running that company in 2009. In 2018, he was asked to join the Berkshire board. Why did Warren Buffett pick Greg Abel to succeed him at Berkshire Hathaway? Abel’s performance with Berkshire Hathaway Energy caught the eye of senior Berkshire executives. Through a series of acquisitions, he transformed that company into a major player in the power industry, with earnings of $5 billion in the first quarter of 2025. In 2023, Buffett told CNBC that Abel does all the work, and I take all the bows. He’s also seen, in many ways, as the spiritual successor to the plain-spoken, non-flashy Buffett, ensuring the culture at Berkshire Hathaway doesn’t change. What is Greg Abel’s investment strategy? Abel, when asked Saturday to compare his approach in dealing with Berkshire’s subsidiaries to Buffett’s, said he saw himself as “more active, but hopefully in a very positive way. Buffett jokingly offered a more succinct answer: “Better.” He added, “You really need someone that behaves well on top and is not playing games for their own benefit. Munger, in 2023, told CNBC that Abel was a tremendous learning machine and one could argue that hes just as good as Warren in learning all kinds of things. Abel’s not expected to pick the companies that go into the Berkshire portfolio. That will be handled by Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, who already help Buffett with that.
Category:
E-Commerce
Its not every day that a Republican from the Trump administration gets a standing ovation, or three, from a roomful of Democrats. But as Mike Pence showed on January 6, 2021, he doesn’t always stick to the party line. According to the former vice president, the attacks on the Capitol four years ago were ultimately unsuccessful and a triumph of freedom” because “our institutions held that day, not because of any one person, but because leaders in both political parties, Republicans and Democrats, did their duties, Pence said while receiving the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in Boston at the JFK Library on Sunday. Pence received the award for putting his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power. After repeated pressure to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which Joe Biden won, Pence was to preside over Congress and the certification process, which includes counting the Electoral College votes, when a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to stop the process. While the Secret Service urged him to evacuate, Pence, his wife, Karen, and their daughter Charlotte refused to leave the Capitol, coordinating with the military and congressional leaders during the attack. Once the Capitol was cleared, Pence resumed the certification process. In these divided times, in these anxious days, I know in my heart that we will find our way forward as one nation, Pence said, acknowledging the current Trump administrations agenda, without naming the president specifically. He added: It’s the Constitution that “binds us all together.” Unpopular positions, principled stands The awardnamed after President Kennedys 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Profiles in Courage, which recounts the stories of eight U.S. senators who risked their careers by taking principled stands for unpopular positionsis presented each year to public servants for making a courageous decision of conscience without regard for the personal or professional consequences. Kennedys daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and grandson, Jack Schlossberg, presented the award to Pence, acknowledging the new political climate of fear that has taken over in the last four months. We are especially grateful for your presence this year, as many are afraid to speak out or show up, Kennedy said. Its hard to believe that attending a black-tie gala could be described an act of couragebut here we are. President Kennedy called his time the hour of maximum danger and welcomed the challenge. We are living in a similar moment now. Just as President Kennedy famously stated, “my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,” Caroline Kennedy said, now is the time to act because, as we have seen in the past 100 days, we can no longer take our democracy for granted.” “Everyone should be speaking their hearts” Those in attendance included Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, who called Pence a profile in courage [for] standing up against a leader of his own party, and comedian David Letterman, who said, In this day and age, courage needs to be identified and celebrated in this way. It didnt use to be that way. When asked what Americans can do right now, Letterman told Fast Company: “They should be speaking their hearts. Everyone should be speaking their hearts. This was a moment when the vice president stood up for the constitution, and we have to all remember that today, U.S. presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin told Fast Company. History shows that people working from the ground up are what make all the changes. So its at your local area, its in your state, its in your city. Every changewhether its civil rights, womens rights, gay rightshas come from the ground up. Thats what we need to do. Previous award recipients include former presidents Barack Obama and George H. W. Bush, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, and former Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Category:
E-Commerce
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