So it was just absolutely bizarre to me that to this day to get every single one of these

ships into port in every port on the face of this earth, a harbor pilot has to risk their

life every time.

I'm Chris Hill and that was Wall Street Journal Technology columnist Christopher Mims.

When you buy a USB charger from amazon.com, if you're like me, you're probably not thinking

about the thousands of miles the product travels to get to your front door.

Today on Motley Full Money, producer Ricky Mulvey talks with Mims about his book arriving

today from factory to front door, why everything has changed about how and what we buy.

It's a conversation that pulls the curtain back on just in time delivery to show the roots

of America's shipping crisis.

They also discuss the microchip shortage and what it's really like to work in an Amazon

fulfillment center.

My guest today is Christopher Mims.

He's a technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal and the author of arriving today

from factory to front door, why everything has changed about how and what we buy.

Christopher, this is a book about the things we take for granted, essentially the ability

to hit a button on Amazon and then have a USB charger show up to your door.

In some cases less than a day, is that was that kind of the impetus to write this book?

Yeah, I wanted to write an explainer, but of course, definitely through my research,

the pandemic hit, so it really got bigger than that and became about how the supply chains

that get us everything that we take for granted have really been tested.

Now, in some cases, if not broken, really been pushed beyond their boundaries and of course

...