"Just the opposite. Need to let people raise prices to encourage slack in the system." "We don’t want the government to pick winners and losers when it doesn’t

"Just the opposite. Need to let people raise prices to encourage slack in the system." "We don’t want the government to pick winners and losers when it doesn’t need to. " Markets are not even remotely close to as efficient as you're implying. In a clinch, people are making all sorts of crazy guesses at what the future will bring, making everything very inefficient. Remember that efficient markets depend on rational acting based on good information. We often don't have very good information at the unit level, and, we often act irrationally. Some company flush with cash, decides to buy things at crazy high prices thereby denying the 'critical sources' (those that support production) access. Right now there is a lot of parts hoarding - speculators buying up parts to sell them at higher prices. They're adding no net value to the system and causing all sorts of other problems. The clearing of those prices may happen over time, but not without terrible damage being done. Supply chains are not like stock markets with clear prices and instant transactions. You may not need the government stepping in, but you definitely want non-market actions. For example, chip makers may want to work with their supply chains to ensure a kind of absolutism or preferential customer tranches. FYI this already happens, all the time. Price is not King for parts, like it is on the stock market. Vendors of 'everything' are aware of the long term growth of their business, and will generally want to work with consistent buyers. So in this FUBAR panic, supply chains have to think not about one thing, about many. I believe that root causes was already a fait-accompli at the start of the pandemic when a bunch of parts of the supply chain shut down - we're still paying the price of trying to get things going.