President Joe Biden tried to put a positive spin on the supply chain bottlenecks at major California ports, but stores are scrambling to keep shelves stocked as the chaos sends prices soaring ahead of the busy holiday shopping season.
Biden took to Twitter over the Thanksgiving weekend to boast about the "actions" his administration has taken "in the past three weeks" to address the supply-chain crisis that dates back to August.
Biden continues, saying that "containers sitting on docks is down 33%," and "shipping prices are down 25%."
Because of the actions we’ve taken, in the past three weeks, the number of containers sitting on docks is down 33% — and shipping prices are down 25%. Goods are moving quicker out of our ports and onto doorsteps and store shelves.
— President Biden (@POTUS) November 27, 2021
Yet, the supply-chain crisis continues to loom over Biden's presidency amid his sinking approval ratings, with Americans becoming more frustrated with inventory shortages and the highest inflation in more than 30 years. Many experts anticipate the "logistics crisis" to drag on even past the following year, saying the effects of the pandemic and labor and material shortages play too large of a role in today's economy.
Since the supply chain bottleneck, Biden has delivered five speeches outlining his administration measures has taken to ease the crisis. The measures include spending $4 billion for construction at ports, ordering the Justice Department to probe possible illegal conduct from companies inflating prices, and ordering the ports to stay open 24 hours, 7-days a week.
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday being the biggest shopping days of the Holiday season, Americans will see prices of televisions are at their highest levels since 2012, and GDP Group, a market research firm, estimates that holiday shoppers should expect to spend $100 more than the previous years.
Yet, the supply-chain crisis continues to remain more tangled and signs that the issue is likely to be long-lived.
A United Nations report published a week ago warns that global consumer prices will rise significantly in the next year until the supply chain disruptions are unblocked and port constraints and terminal inefficiencies are tackled. The report concluded that if shipping costs continue to rise at the same level, global import prices could increase by 11% by 2023. That would raise consumer price levels by 1.5 percent over the next year.
Americans just returned back from their Thanksgiving break after having the most expensive Thanksgiving feast ever. The average cost of a Thanksgiving meal this year for ten people was $53.31, a 14% increase from last year, according to data from the U.S. Farm Bureau.
