Russians are attempting to sell McDonald’s menu items online at highly inflated prices, following the closure of more than 800 restaurants in the country.

Insider viewed multiple listings on Avito, a Russian classified-ads website, which offered products including Big Macs and McMuffins. Avito is described on LinkedIn as the most popular classifieds site in Russia and the second-biggest in the world.

One Moscow-based seller advertised a Big Mac for the equivalent of around $36. The figure is based on exchange rates at time of writing. In Russia, the burger would usually cost 135 roubles, or around $1, according to The Economist’s Big Mac index.

Another seller recently posted a “McDonald’s Breakfast,” including McMuffins, potato pancakes, and sauces for around $18.

In a listing translated into English, the seller said they were offering the items to “those who want to enjoy the last taste of a bygone era.”…read more.

Kevin Falcon, new leader of the BC Liberal Party, laid into BC NDP government policies today – from gasoline taxes to housing initiatives – that he said are making it hard for ordinary British Columbians to get by.

B.C., especially Vancouver, has been seeing record-breaking gasoline prices in recent days, with gas prices in Vancouver inching towards $2 per litre.

While there are geopolitical reasons for soaring oil prices that are driving up gasoline prices everywhere, including the war in Ukraine, they are particularly painful in Vancouver due to a suite of fuel taxes, Falcon said.

Asked if he thought a gasoline price cap similar to what New Brunswick has is the answer to high gas prices, Falcon said it wasn’t.

“No — that kind of interference in the marketplace, frankly it won’t work,” Falcon said.

He said the government had a tool for lowering taxes for British Columbians as carbon taxes on gasoline rise – revenue neutrality – but pointed out that the NDP government scrapped the revenue neutrality requirement of B.C.’s carbon tax…read more.

A sudden increased global demand and higher prices for Canadian logs, lumber, pulp and wood pellets could result from a dramatic disruption in wood markets, due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Western world has moved with swift and dramatic sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Russia is a commodities giant. In addition to being a major oil, natural gas and potash producer, it is also a major exporter of logs, lumber, pulp and pellets.

But economic sanctions being taken by both governments and the private sector (i.e. buyers) could suddenly throttle Russian forestry product exports, forcing buyers to seek new suppliers.

“Increased sanctions against trading with Russia and difficulty with financial transactions will probably interrupt and re-direct shipments of forest products throughout the world,” WRI Market Insights notes in brief…read more.

The outbreak of war between Russia and the Ukraine this week will not have major implications on the global supply chain outside of one potential item – shipping costs.

That is the assessment of one leading analyst, who noted that while he does not expect any large effects on global supply chains and trade due to the type of commodities produced by the Ukrainian market, Russia’s role as a major energy producer means that the ongoing spike in oil prices may knock-on to the price of running cargo vessels and other transportation modes.

“Putin’s unprovoked and shameful war of aggression against the people of Ukraine is a humanitarian and political tragedy,” said Werner Antweiler, director of UBC Sauder School of Business’s Prediction Markets program and an associate professor. “What makes it worse is that Russia, as a large exporter of fossil fuel, is making money off it with every increase in the price of crude oil and natural gas.”

According to Freightos, which compiles data on a number of leading economic indicators such as freight prices, there has not been a large spike in recent days with the Baltic Index for containers – a figure economists refer to to assess current shipping costs for container freight. Similarly, Antweiler said the Baltic Dry Index for bulk goods – while up to 2,187 this morning (which is considerably higher than the 1,296 figure on Jan. 25) – is still well off the whopping 5,650 on Oct. 6 of last year…read more.