This is the Kato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, October 26, 2021. I'm Caleb Brown. It would be a bit too easy to just blame Joe Biden for backups now being experienced at ports, but he does bear some responsibility.

As to the bulk of the problems now being caused at key shipping points in the U.S.

Its trade rules larded up with special interest favors, unions that have resisted mechanization, and other

regulatory handouts that have made the U.S. ports among the least efficient in the world.

Cato Scott Linsicum comments.

Scott, as best as you can tell, why are Americans in particular having trouble purchasing and receiving in a timely fashion goods that they would like to purchase from overseas.

Sure so some of it is just the pandemic doing its thing.

Over the last year or so, there have been really substantial imbalances in national supply and demand patterns.

You know, our global supply chains developed over decades based on

somewhat predictable and consistent patterns of supply and demand, You know, sure, import and export volumes would change

every year a little, but shipping companies and trains and truckers and all those links in the supply chain could kind of figure things out and they set levels for that.

Well, a global pandemic hits and all of a sudden economies are closing down and reopening.

Countries are getting vaccinated at different times and all of

this is going to have an impact on those supply and demand patterns. You combine that with a increase in the United States in Americans desire for goods

and comfort with e-commerce and you have jacked up that demand even more.

And then you have that demand hitting some pretty significant supply issues in places,

particularly in Asia, that have adopted really onerous COVID mitigation

strategy, zero COVID policies, that essentially shut down ports and factories when there's an outbreak.

So all that together is inevitably going to put stress on the supply chain.

And so a lot of this is just again the pandemic doing its thing.

But there are also a lot of government and other policies that are adding to our supply chain woes.

And that's I think what's the more important lesson for policy world on this is that, you know our supply chain did develop over decades

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