The problem with the supply chain is the government is trying to manage with the usual results and it is hampered by the Biden Administration Who are using shortages to further their political goals for the Great Reset.
I haven’t seen any shortages in Idaho (July to December) or the California Bay Area (January). There are a few gaps here and there, but they get filled during the night stocking.
It feels like this is just more ginning up of fear and hysteria.
I ordered a repair part for our ten year old microwave oven. It arrived in a few days. Almost all Amazon orders arrive in one to three days. Gasoline stations are full (at horrible prices).
I was at Kohl’s yesterday and there were no shortages of clothing, but plain old Dockers are $72 each! Last time I looked they were around $49.
“Just in time” is not a robust system. But everybody adopted it. It has failed, along with Democrats the world wide, practicing policies of the “government knows best”, caused this.
It will indeed take years to recover, if at all. We had it in our grasp and we let the Democrats of the world “piss it away”.
Government controls are the problem. Unleash the entrepreneurial markets and get government out of the way.
This has NOT happened in Australia. I am really getting sick of the lies people are telling about my country.
What has been suggested is that those who are currently unemployed might be able to find short term work as supermarket shelf stackers. It would be voluntary and they'd be paid for it at the normal rate for the work. In other words, they'd be getting a job.
The supply chain is a complex dynamic system.Lots of moving parts. Who is John Galt?
Saw my first empty meat section at a Walmart last week. Weird. Not widespread around here, but it does happen. The system is a bit messed up. We are a hop, skip, and a jump from huge numbers of chicken farms and a rather large chicken “processing” plant. But no chicken at the nearest Walmart. Weird. I’m blaming Joe Brandon.
If we let prices do their job, and get government out of the way, these problems would be fixed. Long live the free market.
For those who need batteries (such as AA AAA, etc.) - don’t wait too long, at least if my local Sam’s is any indication. Practically sold out, except for their store brand...but that was low, also.
There are nations that are hostile to the United States.
They can’t risk fighting us militarily.
This is one way they are attacking us.
As with any significant event, there will be winners and losers. Winners in USA will be domestic producers with secure supply chains of raw materials and other critical bill of material items. Similarly, suppliers and service providers who can participate in restoring of American industry are going to be in demand. This is easier said than done. Much of our critical and strategic materials are foreign made . Thank the Lord for Donald Trump’s efforts to re shore our critical and strategic industries and to drive for American energy independence. Despite the Biden Admin’s best attempts to destroy the Trump efforts at repatriation of American manufacturing industrial base from foreign countries and his efforts to make us energy independent, most of the plans are still in progress due the covid supply chain disruptions, the instability of China and the realization by Corp leaders of the downside risks of offshoring of mission critical assets. On the energy side, despite the Biden Admin’s attempts to destroy our domestic petrochemical industry, Trump has shown the way and we can rapidly rebuild what Biden has tried to destroy. The rebuilding of America’s domestic petrochemical base for petrochemical self sufficiency is the single most critical issue to allow America to weather any systemic crash for two reasons. The first is the obvious ability to supply domestic needs. The second reason is strategic and perhaps just as critical - in any serious scarcity, foreign oil prices are going to skyrocket and the resulting massive price shocks will kill the American economy across the board. The Biden Admins willful attempts at destruction of our petrochemical industry are borderline treason as we may soon discover
Now It’s Everything
But it’s not just Costco this time. It’s every supermarket, convenience store and other retail outlet from coast to coast. And it’s not just cleaning products and paper goods. Your local supermarket might have bare shelves for eggs, peanut butter, milk and other staples.
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Strange shortages at my local supermarket today. No baby aspirin, in fact about half the aspirin section was empty, and no dental floss!!! What the heck!
Xi’an is a city of 13 - 15 million people.
The buried lead:
“Once governments get a taste of neo-fascism, they always want more. That’s true even in a liberal democracy like Australia. We’re seeing similar phenomena play out in western European democracies as well.”
Why hadn’t we seen this phenomenon before? What’s changed?
What’s changed is the government generously (with our tax dollars) paying people not to work, and with mask mandates and vax mandates making it harder to work and keep a job.
What happened in prior years is that shortages produced higher prices, people worked overtime to catch up on demand, and the shortage was eliminated. That’s not happening now.
People, skilled people, are taking early retirement in order to not have to put up with the craziness.
Think it’s bad now, wait until the fallout from Russia/Ukraine, China/Taiwan, both of which will happen this year.. the secondary effect on markets will be intersecting to see. None of this good for the supply chain.
I have a great idea for this Global Supply Chain problem. Let’s restrict all trucking between the US, Mexico, and Canada! Only allow vaccinated/boosted truckers. That will teach us!
Isn’t it more recent ( last 6 years or so ) that stores started moving over to computers handling inventory and the ordering ? I don’t think in these unusual times a computer can handle the job. As much as they like to think humans can all be replaced by a machine, humans really can’t be replaced or at least machines can’t maintain the standards we’ve become accustomed.
Later