Shortages

Shortages are a distinctive feature of the United States in the time of COVID and in the Trump years as a whole.

They are a new thing. In my lifetime the US has always been a place of plenty. In Trump’s strongman capitalism the economy comes second to his hold on power.

Shortages were a feature of the Soviet Union. I witnessed the strange dysfunction of the market visiting East German in the 1980s. It was like nothing I had ever seen until now.

The causes of shortages included:

• Trump’s trade war with China. Tariffs. Retaliation.
• COVID-related manufacturing, farming and distribution shutdowns
• Closing of the schools, related to COVID. Move to remote learning.

Here are some shortages that come to mind.

• Chromebooks (trade war, remote learning)
• toilet paper (COVID)
• meat (COVID)
• eggs (COVID)
• bikes (caused by trade war)