A surge in demand for toys and sports equipment has contributed to logjams at US ports.
Now you know why we need to fix our infrastructure. Everything breaks down eventually but Republicans hate spending money on things other than tax breaks for the filthy rich or new wars that make GOP-contributing war profiteers richer.
The failure of the Trump administration to take the pandemic seriously and to treat it as a political matter rather than as a public health emergency has led to an aftershock of staffing issues and supply chain disruptions.
As private firms encourage employees back to offices to work in person, there is a big surge in demand for office equipment ranging from computers, printers and servers, and many of them are now stuck in various containers from Asia.
This is in addition to equipment for office upgrades to reduce the spread of coronavirus.
"Many air filters along with ventilation equipment are also in these containers waiting to be unloaded," says Prof Tang.
And there's an immediate personnel problem, says Gary Hufbauer, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics - the lack of skilled port workers, truck drivers and rail crew to move everything.
"Largely this reflects the Delta variant, but also retirement, particularly among truck drivers."
What’s happening now is typical. Republicans create a problem and then blame Democrats for not cleaning up the GOP mess quickly enough.














