Hi, I'm Dan Premack, and welcome to Axios Recap, where we dig into one big story.

Today is Friday, July 23rd.

Stocks are up.

My time on this program is winding down, and we're focused on why it's so hard to buy so many things.

If you've tried to buy just about anything with high-end electronics

in it recently, you know it's become a challenge, particularly if it's something like a car

or a smart home appliance. The problem is that so much of what we use these days includes

silicon chips or semiconductors, and there just aren't enough of them to go around. Some of that's because of mining and manufacturing slowdowns during the pandemic.

Some of it's the cascading effect of supply chain bottlenecks from that giant tanker that got

stuck in the Suez Canal.

Some of it's because, after the pandemic, lots of us want to buy so much, so fast.

The question then is what can be done beyond just waiting for

things to hopefully sort themselves out eventually. There is a federal bill called the Chips

Act, which would incentivize more U.S. chip production, and that's important because we don't

produce very many chips here. The Senate did pass a version of this, but it hasn't yet hit the House

floor. And even if it does, and even if President Biden signs into law, it won't solve our short-term shortages.

So today we wanted to go deeper with U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Romando, who at a recent press conference said she is engaging almost daily with the semiconductor industry.

We'll ask how we got here, where exactly we are, and what

we do going forward. We're joined now by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Romando. Secretary,

people have been talking about a chip shortage for months now. Are we anywhere close to the

end of it?

No, unfortunately, I don't think we are. There's a short-term issue and a long-term issue.

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