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“This problem really predates Biden. COVID and the idiotic government responses to it made an existing problem much worse.”

It really does. There are many factors and variable to the supply chain problem.

The one that sticks out to me, is a lack of a sustainable labor supply, not just in the US but globally.
The age of populations around the globe isn’t get talked about enough.

Over the next 2 decades, we’re going to find out if the current wealth, maintenance, and growth of civilization will continue as we’ve come to expect.

“I have my doubts.”

Good post. I work in this area professionally, and I've said for years that the complexity of the supply chain is what is driving this whole thing sideways. Imagine a consumer product that is manufactured in Asia, loaded into a shipping container, shipped to the U.S. through the Port of Los Angeles, and transported across the country to the Northeast where it is sold to a customer.

Even a limited list of the different players involved in this supply chain would include at least a dozen different entities -- producers of the raw materials that make up the components of the product, the manufacturers of those components, the final manufacturer, the retailer who sells it, the port terminal operator, and the freight transportation companies (trucking firms, railroads, ocean shipping lines, etc.) that move things in various stages of this process. This supply chain is subject to breakdowns when even small problems occur because none of the various players are coordinated by a single entity with the ability to oversee the whole process.

Unless Amazon or Walmart gets into the business of owning port terminals, railroads, ocean carriers, and manufacturing, this is always going to be a very complex -- and "brittle" -- process.