This is how the world ran out of everything. Our story on the global shortages and how business overdid it with Just In Time, enriching shareholders at the expense of the real economy. with @NirajC nytimes.com/2021/06/01/bus…
@NirajC 2/ How lumber, sporting goods, tapioca and chemicals all got scarce at same time is complex, featuring pandemic-related chaos in shipping, production disruption and wildly fluctuating demand. But one key factor cannot be ignored: the corporate world overdid it with staying lean.
@NirajC 3/ A dollar spent stocking warehouses with parts to guard against disruption is a dollar that cannot be distributed to shareholders via dividends and buybacks. This reality is key to understanding what has happened.
@NirajC 4/ The same consultants who have long preached Just In Time and lean no speak of supply chain resilience. But will this disaster prove different from those over decades — Taiwan earthquake, Fukushima — in prompting companies to pay for backup? History suggests not.
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