SUPPLY CHAIN UPDATE - Agrimark and Dairy Farmers of America say they can’t hire enough truckers. In England, lack of truckers has left gas stations with empty tanks, grocery stores with many items sold out and ships turning away from ports that are jammed with ships that can’t unload because there is a lack of truckers to haul the stuff away. In Canada, Trucking HR reports there’s a shortage of 18,000 drivers. Sixty-one per cent of employers say they can’t get enough. https://www.theobserver.ca/news/farm-news/trucker-shortage-is-global/wcm/3d62b8f1-edca-4fab-9778-346278291c5f

Inflation in Germany climbed to 4.1 percent in September, the highest rate since December 1993, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced. Prices for energy increased significantly in September by 14.3 percent, according to Destatis. Compared to last year, prices for heating oil and motor fuels soared 76.5 and 28.4 percent respectively. http://www.news.cn/english/europe/2021-10/13/c_1310242757.htm

China has raised the mininmum purchasing price for wheat in 2022, as part of an effort to enhance grain security in the country. The National Development and Reform Commission has set the 2022 minimum purchase price for wheat at 2,300 yuan ($357) per tonne, up from 2,260 yuan per tonne in 2021. China buys wheat from farmers at the minimum price when the market price drops below that level in order to support food production. The move came amid a renewed policy focus on food security from the government, and also comes after China raised the 2021 minimum purchasing price for wheat, the first it had increased this price since 2014. https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/china-raises-2022-minimum-purchase-price-for-wheat-to-2300-yuan-t-2021-10-14-0

Russian President Vladimir Putin said cryptocurrencies have value, but they can’t be used to settle oil trades yet. “It exists and may be used as means of payment, but to use it in trading in oil or other energy resources — it’s too early to talk about this,” Putin said. “It is very unstable.” Russia is rolling out its own central bank digital currency, or CBDC. In June, Bank of Russia named 12 banks that will be involved in the initial testing of the digital Ruble. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/russian-president-putin-says-crypto-e2-80-98has-value-e2-80-99/ar-AAPw8xH?pfr=1

India's annual wholesale price-based inflation, a proxy for producers' prices, loitered in the double digits for the sixth month in a row in September, fuelling concerns of inflationary pressures as energy and raw material costs surge for companies. Economists said that with global commodity prices expected to remain elevated in coming months, manufacturers could try to pass on rising costs to consumers. https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/indias-wholesale-price-inflation-in-double-digits-for-6th-month-2021-10-14

China's September factory gate inflation rose to a record on soaring commodity prices, but weak demand capped consumer inflation. The producer price index (PPI) rose 10.7% from a year earlier in September, the biggest rise since the bureau started compiling the data in 1996. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-sept-factory-inflation-hits-highest-since-records-started-2021-10-14/

A group of private sector professionals launched the Digital Pound Foundation, an organization that aims to promote the development of the U.K.’s central bank digital currency (CBDC). The foundation will conduct research, advocate and enable multi-stakeholder collaboration to help the design and roll out of a digital pound. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/digital-pound-foundation-launches-push-084254886.html

The point, again, is that today systemic risk is more dangerous than ever, and each crisis is bigger than the one before. Remember, too-big-to-fail banks are bigger than ever, have a larger percentage of the total assets of the banking system and have much larger derivatives books. The ability of central banks to deal with a new crisis is highly constrained by low interest rates and bloated balance sheets, which have exploded even higher in response to the pandemic. https://dailyreckoning.com/contagion-2/

Brazilian exports of green coffee fell 29% in September compared with a year earlier, to 2.74 million 60-kg bags, as shipping difficulties continued to hamper the commodity's flow. Cecafe's head, Nicolas Rueda, said there was no change regarding shipping, with exporters struggling to get bookings for containers and vessels, as well as facing frequent loading postponements from shipping companies. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/brazil-coffee-exports-fall-29-214341207.html

Russia's international reserves have reached historic levels, with the country investing in assets like gold and foreign currency amid growing economic uncertainty with inflation spiking steeply after a global borrowing spree. Moscow’s Accounts Chamber revealed that the nation has more overseas assets on hand than ever before. “The volume of Russia’s international reserves now exceeds 61 billion US dollars,” a statement from officials reads. “This is a historic record. No such figure has been achieved before in the whole existence of the Bank of Russia.” https://www.rt.com/russia/537449-russia-gold-reserves-record/

Israel -A day after falling victim to the biggest cyberattack in history on the Israeli health system, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center still has no idea of the amount of damage caused and does not know when they will be able to return to normal operations, according to a senior official. The hospital was hit by a still-unresolved ransomware attack, forcing it to shut down its technology network and causing delays in care. https://www.timesofisrael.com/hospital-has-no-idea-of-scale-of-cyberattack-havoc-recovery-could-take-months/

Laptop maker Acer has confirmed a cyberattack on its India servers earlier this week. The hackers, the Desorden Group, claimed to have stolen 60GB of data after breaching the company’s servers. The group even emailed ZDNet to inform them about the hack and claimed to have customer and corporate business data, apart from financial information. The hackers, however, told the outlet that it was not a ransomware attack and said it gained access to the servers over time. https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/topstories/acer-india-servers-hacked-over-50gb-of-user-data-including-financial-details-allegedly-stolen/ar-AAPyRkg?pfr=1

Oil in London rose past $85 a barrel for the first time since 2018, the latest milestone in a global energy crunch that has seen prices soar. A shortage of gas and coal is triggering extra demand for oil products from the power market, and some banks expect the switch to boost prices further with winter approaching in the northern hemisphere. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-set-best-run-weekly-063243810.html

USA- The nation's top civilian cybersecurity agency in the DHS issued a warning Thursday about ongoing cyber threats to the U.S. drinking water supply, saying malicious hackers are targeting government water and wastewater treatment systems.https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hackers-targeted-us-drinking-water-and-wastewater-facilities-as-recently-as-august-homeland-security-says/ar-AAPyVqB

Major Asian banks have shown great interest in CBDCs as reports show collaborative efforts by Thailand’s, Hong Kong’s and China’s central banks to create a digital ledger technology (DLT) for a CBDC prototype designed to bridge cross-border gaps. https://cointelegraph.com/news/asian-cbdc-projects-what-are-they-doing-now

Continuous rainfall for more than ten days has caused the lower reaches of the Luo River in China’s west to spill their banks. Large volumes of floodwater released from upstream have destroyed two dams in one county, and villages are flooded. Local jujube growers and those in animal husbandry have suffered serious losses. https://www.theepochtimes.com/flooding-in-west-china-destroys-agricultural-production_4050113.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge

One of Brazil's largest insurance groups, Porto Seguro has reported it suffered a cyberattack that resulted in instability to its service channels and some of its systems. The company is the latest of a list of major Brazilian organizations suffering major security incidents over recent weeks. Earlier this month, CVC, one of the country's largest travel operators, was hit by a ransomware attack that brought its operations to a standstill. https://www.zdnet.com/article/brazilian-insurance-giant-porto-seguro-hit-by-cyberattack/ #ICE9

Customers of Ecuador’s largest bank continued to experience service disruptions on Friday following a cyberattack on the institution several days earlier. Long lines formed outside Pichincha bank branches and thousands of customers took their complaints to social media. People reported being unable to access services offered by the bank's online and mobile app. https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/cyberattack-disrupts-services-ecuadors-largest-bank-80607755

Protests in Italy over the country’s new COVID-19 rules for workers spread on Friday to several of the country’s largest ports. While reports vary on the level of disruption, workers at three of the country’s major ports were reported either on strike or staging protests calling for the government to either pay for mandatory testing or drop the so called “Green Pass” restrictions. Another unresolved issue under the new regulations concerns the large number of foreign truck drivers who service the ports and transport shipments across the country’s borders. A spokesperson for Italy’s logistics association said they feared 30 to 40 percent of drivers might not show up for work. https://maritime-executive.com/article/protests-over-covid-regulations-for-workers-spread-to-italy-s-ports

The UK's shortage of lorry drivers had led to supermarkets receiving fewer deliveries of products, so when they sell out of a particular item, it now takes longer for the gap on the shelf to be refilled. "The impact of the driver shortage is felt across the entire supply chain, all the way through to the last mile – where consumers are faced with fewer choices at checkout and longer delays on their deliveries due to retailers' struggles to keep their warehouses stocked." https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1506970/uk-food-shortages-full-list-areas-worst-affected-evg

Uzbekistan is hoping to rent up to 1 million hectares of land in Russia to grow wheat, soy, and oilseeds there. Uzbekistan produces about 6.6 million to 7.6 million tons of wheat a year and imports some 3 million tons, though imports have reportedly swelled to 3.7 million tons in 2020-21. https://www.rferl.org/a/uzbekistan-wheat-shortage-russia/31512890.html