News From the Control Tower - 3/31/2022

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances.

This week’s reads include:

1.       Russia’s Ukraine war boosts food prices in U.S., vexing farmers about planting more

"Input costs are going up even more than the price of wheat," said Nicole Berg, the owner of a 21,000 acre farm in Washington state.

Another interesting take about the global wheat supply comes from this Twitter thread by crop scientist Dr. Sarah Thaber. She asserts that the world has a shipping shortage, not a wheat shortage.

2.       BlackRock chief Larry Fink says Ukraine war marks end of globalisation

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has put an end to the globalisation we have experienced over the last three decades,” Fink wrote in his annual letter to shareholders of BlackRock, which oversees $10tn as the world’s largest asset manager.

3.       Can Home Prices and Interest Rates Soar at the Same Time?

 Rising mortgage rates are supposed to cool house prices. But this time could be different.

4.       Amazon delivery drone crash sparked acres-wide fire in Oregon: FAA

Amazon’s drone delivery program is again under the scanner with a new Business Insider report highlighting how an experimental Prime Air drone set several acres of a wheat farm ablaze when it crashed in eastern Oregon during a test flight last summer.

5.       Colorado utility bills are getting harder to understand. Just ask this Denver software manager

To make their 1920s home more energy-efficient, he overhauled it — changed the windows, insulated the attic, rerouted the HVAC ducts, installed solar panels and a new furnace — renovations worth more than $72,000, according to his calculations. 

It made a difference. His natural gas use dropped 8 percent in January from the previous year, according to CPR News’ review of his energy bills. The amount Xcel was asking for, however, was higher.

Bonus:

2 Hours Of Chill Shrimp To Work/Study/Relax | Lofi Hip Hop | Monterey Bay Aquarium Krill Waves Radio

Whether you're working on a shrimportant deadline, tackling a shrimpossible task or just shrimply looking to krill out for a while—here's two hours of spot prawns (in fact a large shrimp Pandalus platyceros) to help you work, study, relax and vibe in a crustacean relaxation station filled with lofi hip hop beats.