America’s progressives can’t give-up our dependence on China for so many items, because changing supply-chains, returning manufacturing, etc... would destroy Democrat-left-progressive rule.
According to CTH, we’re already expected to have an acceleration inflation to start on the 15th due to all those truck drivers losing their job. And then we have the ChiComs doing their best to push us along, but it’s hard to believe they would voluntarily nuke their own economy as well. Then again, with EverGreen, maybe they figure it’s all screwed up anyway, might as well force the collapse and blame it on the bug, and take out the West at the same time!
Prepper ping
I ordered a new heat pump for the house yesterday. it will be here tomorrow. From Ohio to Oklahoma.
Supply chain problems? Not on this item.
What is the real truth?
Today under the current MBA business models all manufacturing should that required lots of manual labor should be outsourced to countries with the lowest labor rates, unless very high skills are required (more on that later).
Another foundation of the “modern” business model is “just in time inventory control” so that a minimum amount of business capital is tied up in inventory. Up until Covid, the days where “stock out” lost opportunity profits were considered were gone for most manufacturing, with the exception of strike induced shortages. The idea was that a good manufacturing model required multiple vendors for each part as a way of preventing stock outs.
What the “modern business model” now needs to include is global disruptions of the supply chain. Manufacturers like major automobile companies now want things like computer chip manufacturers located within the same country that the assembly occurs.
Another less talked about problem that will be solved has to do with labor. Many manufacturers are now reconsidering outsourcing labor to other countries with cheaper labor prices, when lost opportunity profits are soaring because of Covid. However, we are seeing a complete melt down of the US education system during Covid and the inability to educate the workforce. Online learning for the most part is not working for manufacturing or technical jobs. It is across the board, K-12, Community colleges, technical schools, or universities. Modern manufacturing requires high levels of STEM skills to handle the robotic manufacturing maintenance as well as the quality control statistical analysis. The US education system is not supplying the needed skill sets to expand production within the US. This means that older workers with those skill sets are becoming critical. Unfortunately, older workers are not willing to put up with the political crap being handed out right now by business and government (vaccine mandates, social distancing, limits on on-call and overtime work, etc.
I see the US at a turning point. If we can get our education system turned around, get business to reinvest in US manufacturing and get business (and the stock market) to place a high value on lost opportunity stock out profits (aka brand loyalty), then this could all turn out for the best. However, that is a big set of assumptions that politicians seem to have no desire to tackle.
Good.
Well, the good news is all those container ships sitting off California, will finally get unloaded.
Decrease taxes and regulations, bring industry back home.
See blam's entire post and you will understand the reason for the problem
This supply chain crisis, and the closing of many ports, may explain why China has been furiously purchasing grain from the international markets, thus affect world commodity prices.
“.. as Bloomberg writes overnight, the effects of restrictions in China as the country maintains its Covid-zero policy "are starting to hit supply chains in the region."
"As a result of the slow movement of goods through some of the country’s busiest and most important ports means shippers are now diverting to Shanghai,
causing the types of knock-on delays at the world’s biggest container port that led to massive congestion bottlnecks last summer
that eventually translated into a record number of container ships waiting off the coast of California, a glut that hasn't been cleared to this day."
“ With sailing schedules already facing delays of about a week, freight forwarders warn of the impact on already back-logged gateways in Europe and the US
and is also why HSBC economists are warning that the world economy could be headed for the “mother of all” supply chain shocks if the highly infectious omicron variant
which is already swamping much of the global economy spreads across Asia, especially China, at which point disruption to manufacturing will be inevitable."
“ Echoing what we said last night in "New Year Brings New All-Time High For Shipping's Epic Traffic Jam", Krishnan doesn’t see an end to the global supply crunch
anytime soon and cautions it could take several years for the snarls to unwind. “ (Emphasis Theirs)
Buy elsewhere or make your own, preferably the latter.
This is a strong sign of a military buildup. The resources are being transferred to prep for war. The PLA is getting ready. Also see what is happening in the “former” Soviet Union.