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| New to the newsletter? Subscribe to The Daily Money to get the best consumer and financial news from USA TODAY delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. And give our news-inspired Spotify playlist a listen. It features every song quoted here. |
| Happy Tuesday, Daily Money readers. Jayme Deerwester back with you. |
The real driver behind high gas prices |
| Another week, another record high for gas prices. And there seems to be no immediate relief in sight. |
| The average price for regular unleaded gas surged by a quarter in the past week to a record $4.86 on Monday, AAA said. Several states have already passed the $5 mark. |
| Most people blame higher oil prices, but the real driver of higher prices may surprise you. It's a lack of refining capacity. There aren't enough refineries, which break down crude oil into gas and other common products, to keep up with demand. |
| When COVID-19 struck and world economies closed, demand plunged for oil and gas so many companies closed their plants. Others were hit by bad weather. Some companies stopped investing in refineries because of uncertainty over how the transition to green energy would affect their business. When Russia invaded Ukraine, more refineries in Russia were taken offline. |
| All of this has led to less refining capacity. Existing refineries are operating at near-maximum capacity, but they haven't been able to keep up with demand. |
📰 More stories you shouldn't miss 📰 |
| Coming soon to your iPhone: iOS 16 will let you edit texts, customize the lock screen. |
| What's a stock split? And why are Amazon and Google doing them? |
| Fast food news: Wendy's is offering a strawberry Frosty through July 2. |
| Looking to sell old stuff? Here's how to pick the right app and get the most money. |
| The rights of bipolar workers: Do workers with bipolar disorder have any recourse if they're fired over a manic episode? |
The link between lumber supply and the housing shortage |
| Lumber prices and supply have taken investors, contractors, and consumers for a ride since 2020. |
| Contributing factors include "high demand in the housing market, bottlenecks in the supply chain, and labor shortages," said Jonathan Paine, longtime president and CEO of the National Lumber & Building Material Dealers Association, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbyist group. |
| As COVID wreaked havoc globally, sawmills slowed down, anticipating low demand. But housing needs increased during the pandemic, and those mills "did not ramp up production accordingly," the National Association of Home Builders explained. In addition, the Biden administration doubled the tariffs on Canadian lumber imports from 9% to 17.9%. |
| Stinson Dean, CEO of Deacon Lumber in Kansas City, Missouri, said the U.S. doesn't have enough lumber to build the 2 million homes he estimates the nation needs. Moody's Analytics projects the U.S. shortfall is around 1.5 million homes, fueling a spike in home sales and rental prices. |
| But some experts believe that President Biden will have to take action to improve the country's housing supply and lower prices on homes and materials, including lumber. |
🎧 Mood music 🎧 |
| Today, I'm going with the Avett Brothers' "The Once and Future Carpenter": |
| "Once I was a carpenter and man my hands were callused. I could swing a metal mallet sure and straight. But I took to the highway, a poet young and hungry. And I left the timbers rotting where they lay." |
| LISTEN WHILE YOU WORK: You can hear just about every song quoted in the newsletter on the Daily Money Mood Music playlist on Spotify. |
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