The fact that Ford is now holding back thousands of cars while waiting for a nameplate-logo part to be built got me thinking.
This inflation thing is waaaay bigger than chips.
Call it the lifeguard curve. We should have seen this coming. Lifeguards were starting to be in short supply even before the pandemic. When the pandemic hit, it became a full blown, worldwide crisis. It's not local, it's not due to (political issue), it's worldwide, especially in resort areas.
We've got a demographic labor issue. And there's push back for higher wages from those left willing to do the work, whether it is lifeguarding or operating machinery.
The pandemic was the match thrown into a pool of gasoline dumped over by massive "just-in-time" contracts world over. What ever happened to "second sourcing?" Well that's too expensive, said the smart executives who are actually the source of "too expensive," paid by stock buybacks from free money.
We got drunk on cheap labor from far flung areas of the world who abuse their workers and the environment. But even those areas went on lockdown for a while. For those other areas more willing to play be the rules of decency, there's not enough workers.
Supply shock is the fires above, but wage inflation is the growling monster coming out from below and chewing us all up.
Should have seen this coming.