Supply chains

Or networks…

part 1: what is going on

part 2: from March 2020

On the impact of the pandemic, but a lot of meaty explanation of what goes on in logistics etc

Deeper look form Naked Capitalism

The original sin is optimizing businesses for efficiency at the expense of having slack to contend with unexpected developments….anything from the factory of a key supplier blowing up to the macro-level disruption of Covid. More buffers means more resilience. Having them doesn’t mean all bad outcomes would have prevented. But we would have had fewer deficits and many would have resolved faster. In other words, companies around the world set out to increase collective tail risk in pursuit of profit.

Matt Stoller  discusses weird shortages popping up all over.

Nice explainer 

from the Atlantic

Supply chain people have been key workers that we have all relied on in the pandemic. Starting with the front line, drivers, warehouse workers, planners, engineers, but also the managers and leaders. They have worked in crisis mode now for 18mths + and they are mentally tired… now under major strain, stress levels are too high, tempers and frayed and people are finding it harder to work together… it is time to start to accept that things are not just going to go back to normal on their own, that we can't wish them away. It is time to start being realistic about what our supply chains have the capacity to do, rather than what we want them to be able to do.

How bad might it get?

these problems are likely to both become more severe and persist longer than they should due to the poor responses of our elites. Some of these disruptions are due to things outside US control,… the Administration is making the supply chain/inflation crisis worse through its insistence on strong-form, as in vaccine-only, mandates. There are plenty of choke points in the economy, such nursing staff and public transit workers, that a few job losses has a disproportionate impact. And as we have pointed out here, now that Delta has become the dominant variant, the vaccines do little to limit contagion, as opposed to tamp down severe cases and deaths. It would be far better to have regular testing in all workplaces with close working conditions and/or poor ventilation. But the pushing of the magic vaccines as the only solution continues.

Why it is going to get worse

information flows, ignorance and efficiency of the global supply chain