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Comment by shortstuffsushi | Hacker News Reader

I believe the example was likely chosen due to the recent controversial bill in congress [0]. However, I think the choice of baby formula shows that some "core" needs in the economy are missing as well, and that the tech bubble struggling.

0: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-19/house-pas... (Picked at random from a search for "baby formula bill")

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The baby formula shortage is specifically related to one company’s production being shut down, supposedly due to their negligence in maintaining quality in conjunction with policies specific to baby formula that prevent supplies from abroad to come in to fill the void.

It seems like a very poor example to refer to when talking about the broad economy’s needs and completely unrelated to a tech bubble.

Sorry, I guess I should have expounded a bit more - I think the example was chosen because of both cultural relevance [0] and because it is something that is a "core" element - I didn't necessarily mean to comment on whether it was an accurate representation of the state of things.

I would tend to agree that one "industry's" quality and policy related failings are not a sign of wider economic failure, although I think another commenter had it right with "covid hangover." There's a lingering supply/demand mismatch in seemingly all consumer markets that seems in large part due to problems that were started or brought to a head during covid.

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