[HN Gopher] How we broke the supply chain ___________________________________________________________________ How we broke the supply chain Author : smollett Score : 40 points Date : 2022-02-03 20:19 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (prospect.org) (TXT) w3m dump (prospect.org) | hahahahahahff wrote: | egberts1 wrote: | longwick wrote: | Your comment does nothing to talk of the substance of the | article. | kurthr wrote: | roenxi wrote: | > Only deviating from free-market fundamentalism--giving everyone | health care, for example--could lead to shortages | | This is true, the symptoms the article is looking at are strong | signals of non-free-market policies. Under capitalism, the | failure mode is going to be very high prices. If the failure mode | isn't high prices then the market probably isn't being run as a | free market. | | Like when there is a crisis and the government steps in to ration | or fix prices and a breadline forms - that breadline isn't a | capitalist problem! Capitalism was suspended because the | government didn't like what would happen under capitalism (which, | I think we all agree, would have been high prices to the point | where there was still bread on the shelf that people could buy). | The capitalist outcome isn't a utopia, and isn't even pleasant, | but it also isn't a breadline. | royaltheartist wrote: | Ahh ha, this is like when I say a Scotsman was rude to me and | someone else informs me that it must not have been a true | Scotsman, then | avs733 wrote: | Exactly | | When capitalism fails and something else steps in to fix it, | the fact that the fix is happening at the same time as | something bad means it must be responsible. | kibwen wrote: | I suggest that we stop looking at "the government" as some | entity that is separate from capitalism and/or markets. | Unregulated capitalism/free markets are unstable systems that | eventually _produce_ regulators one way or another; a | democratic government is just one form that this takes, but it | could just as easily result in a cyberpunk megacorp or a | military junta making all the rules. Markets _always_ trend | towards the consolidation of power, as a result of economies of | scale; any "free" market will result in a winner who | eventually uses their power to set the rules to make sure they | stay on top. | xiphias2 wrote: | Inflation (money printing) is the cause of increased demand in | goods, not the result of supply problems. If the government sends | checks of money to people, they will compete for the same amount | of produced goods, and realize that they have to spend the money | faster if they want it to preserve its value better. | standardUser wrote: | During the Great Recession, a vast increase in the money supply | had no apparent impact in inflation. The idea that printing | money is a primary driver of inflation may be outdated. I also | think you're ignoring the dramatic and unexpected changes in | demand (and some constraint in supply) caused by the pandemic. | sayhar wrote: | This is a great article. | | Rabbitholed a tiny bit on this part: | | > Big companies got the law changed to enable ocean carriers to | offer secret discounts in exchange for volume guarantees. | | To an article linked in the first article: | https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2018/12/congr... | | > The last amendment to the Shipping Act occurred in 1998 as the | Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 1998, following a five-year study of | the effect of the Shipping Act on maritime trade and commerce. | The 1998 amendment allowed carriers and shippers to enter | confidential rate agreements providing discounted rates in | exchange for cargo volume commitments. In 2005, the FMC issued a | regulatory ruling extending authority to non-vessel operating | common carriers (NVOCCs) to enter such confidential rate | agreements with shippers. | | > After the 1998 amendment, the maritime industry experienced | significant and widespread consolidation. In addition to carrier | mergers and acquisitions concentrating the bulk of containership | capacity in U.S. trades to fewer than a dozen large carriers, the | formation of vessel carrier alliances caused further substantial | consolidation. Currently, there are three major carrier alliances | representing 80 percent of all container trade. Within the | alliances, there has been further consolidation, e.g., the | creation of Ocean Network Express (ONE) by the merger of Japanese | carriers. | | Damn. | [deleted] | metacritic12 wrote: | When I first opened the site, I wondered if it was a more | technical/wonkish dive, or whether it was a political take. | | Looking at the root site prospect.org made it clear it's the | latter. | | Don't get me wrong, their thesis can still be right and their | fact presented are still valuable, but this is like reading about | "is free trade good" in the Economist. I would take away the | facts, not the conclusion. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-02-03 23:00 UTC)