Vì sao chip toàn cầu thiếu hụt trầm trọng?

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Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal:

Editor:

Daniel Yergin and Matteo Fini blame today’s serious shortage (thiếu hụt) of computer chips on
pandemic lockdowns (phong tỏa vì đại dịch) and on a drought (hạn hán) in Taiwan, a fire (cháy) at a Japanese semiconductor factory, and a winter storm (bão) in Texas. (“For Auto Makers, the Chip Famine Will Persist,” Sept. 23).

Alas, only one of these four events is to blame: lockdowns.

Factory fires, droughts, and winter storms – along with hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, tornados, and dust storms – happen every year, yet they never cause global supply disruptions (gián đoạn chuỗi cung ứng toàn cầu) of the sort that have become commonplace since Spring 2020. The only events of the past 18 months that are out of the ordinary are lockdowns; these, therefore, are the only genuine cause of today’s supply disruptions.

Blaming inadequate production on weather events (and on other routine mishaps such as factory fires) is akin to the Soviet-era practice of blaming the perpetual shortages of consumer goods in the U.S.S.R. on an uncooperative mother nature rather than on the iron fist (bàn tay sắt) of the state that obstructed (ngăn cản, cản trở) voluntary commerce (thương mại tự nguyện).

Sincerely,

Donald J. Boudreaux

Professor of Economics

Bài trước: Nên hay không nên chích ngừa Covid-19 cho trẻ em?