Why Shortages of a $1 Chip Sparked Crisis in the Global Economy

bloomberg.com

19 points·Ice_cream_suit··8 comments

Anybody know the part number of said chip?

Is it me or do factories suddenly catch on fire or explode at the most inconvenient times? It's almost as if demand is controlled via a disaster.

Some of it may be that factories don't get the needed downtime for maintenance, safety inspections, or rest for the line workers. (This is just speculation.)

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." (Hanlon's razor)

Running a production line at full blast for a long time will put extra wear on both machines and people. You might also be tempted to skimp on maintenance to produce more.

Tired people are more likely to make mistakes. Less maintained machines are more likely to have issues.

Not saying this is always the case but I've seen this happen in real life. New company takes over, starts skipping maintenance to produce more, machines now start breaking like clockwork. Eventually the machines were so broken they had to be replaced.

I can't imagine a time where factory accident would be less inconvenient.

You got me there. I should rephrase and write, 'Can Factory Accidents Happen Deliberately?' I would imagine there would be a Wikipedia example on this but I can't find one.

That sounds like a 'Can Circles be Square?' inquiry to me.

Factories around the world are taken offline all the time, for one reason or another. It's only newsworthy when it causes significant problems elsewhere.

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