Why Apple has chips for iPhones while Ford got caught short

So much for capitalism.

Yes, you're right. That's why places like North Korea and Cuba have no supply issues for chips used in making, uh, well, nothing. No chips in making bicycles. Oh, and they're so technically advanced that they can barely make a can of beans.

Yes, you're right. That's why places like North Korea and Cuba have no supply issues for chips used in making, uh, well, nothing. No chips in making bicycles. Oh, and they're so technically advanced that they can barely make a can of beans.

You might be surprised how many products that say "Made in China" including cell phones and other consumer electronics are actually made in North Korea. Even the Chinese will offshore for cheaper labor.

Yes, you're right. That's why places like North Korea and Cuba have no supply issues for chips used in making, uh, well, nothing. No chips in making bicycles. Oh, and they're so technically advanced that they can barely make a can of beans.

Oh yeah, North Korea has a niche making movements for various brands of watch, including I think Swatch (or at least they did for a while). Watches were one of the few goods not subject to UN sanctions so the North Koreans quickly built up a business making watch movements.

That's why places like North Korea and Cuba have no supply issues for chips...

those are small developing countries. May as well compare, say, Guatemala's high tech industry. How about China? It started stockpiling chips last year due to the efforts of its communist central planners and through its state-own enterprises, and now isnt suffering as badly from the shortage as its capitalist rivals.

Anyone here old enough to remember when brand new Ford pick-em-up trucks didn't have a single microchip anywhere to be found? Somehow those old trucks ran good and got the job done. A lot of them are still on the road.

So much for capitalism.

How so? Privately owned and operated businesses made a bad call about when a pandemic would ease up and allow increasing sales. The industry guess wrong. The error of their guess is magnified by greater than expected demand for consumer electronics that drew on the chip supply combined with sanctions on Chinese firms that prevent them from accessing many technologies needed to manufacture chips. Considering the rarity of pandemics and all the uncertainty involved it is hardly a reason to condemn capitalism.

So much for capitalism.