By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says supply chain issues that are keeping vehicles from being built in the U.S. have many causes.
"We've got a real shortage of truck drivers out there," Goss said. "We've got some bottlenecks in terms of shipping, the ports. Some of that's tied to inability to get workers. Workers still have not come back. We're talking about the labor participation rate. That's the percentage of workers over 16 that are in the workforce. That has not revived for the nation yet. We're seeing that the unemployment rate has come down."
Goss believes that the final version of the so-called infrastructure bill still working its way through the Senate will be smaller before it gets done.
"Senator Joe Manchin says you've got to stop this," Goss said. "He's cutting and cutting, he wants a lot of it cut out. You've got Senator Bernie Sanders saying, I already compromised. I wanted $6 trillion and you cut it down to $3.5 trillion. Well, he's going to have to."
The supply chain doesn't care what kind of supplies it's running, when you have less of things, it inflates the prices of those things.
"I eat this, it's called Crackling Oat Bran for breakfast," Goss said. "You can't get it. I saw a bid, it's up to $11 per box. That's up from about $3.50 a box, it's amazing. We're seeing this push, we have a bidding war for my Crackling Oat Bran, I guess. It's just quite amazing for Americans to go into their grocery store and find some of the shelves empty."
Until the supply chain on employees refills, there will continue to be holes in the supply chain for everything from car computer chips to Crackling Oat Bran.