The world’s shipping crisis is so acute that the White House held a press event last week to announce that the port of Los Angeles would not operate 24 hours a day. But it is far from clear that this, or frankly anything that governments could do, is likely to ameliorate conditions in the short run. And shipping backlogs are likely to result in major disruptions in the availability of consumer goods as we head into the holiday season. The Grinch this year may well be a cargo ship with tens of thousands of containers floating for days off the coast of California unable to dock.
While most of us did not see this coming, Business Insider reporter Rachel Premack certainly did. Back in June, Premack published detailed reporting on how the world was heading into a major shipping crisis.
We are lucky to have Rachel Premack with us this morning.
