I know you’re hearing a lot about something called ‘supply chains’,” said US president Joe Biden last week, in a speech explaining to Americans why their sneakers, toasters, bicycles and bedroom furniture were taking so much longer to get to them these days.
It is highly unusual for the leader of the free world to spend so much time talking about logistics and value chains to the general public. But this is an unusual moment, in which supply-chain snags and labour squeezes have resulted in port backups for weeks or even months not only in the US, but the UK, Europe and many other places around the world.
Much of it is down to the Covid-19 pandemic, of course, and the asynchronous national recovery cycles that have led to a mismatch between supply and demand for various products. Those cycles should eventually smooth out as the virus abates. But port disruptions have shed light on bigger problems in the global economy, from incompatibilities of skills and jobs, to an over-reliance on China as the provider of any number of crucial goods.