I was contemplating the shortages the other night while sitting around a fire. It hit me that the problem is the whole global system is now just one big Just-I

I was contemplating the shortages the other night while sitting around a fire. It hit me that the problem is the whole global system is now just one big Just-In-Time (JIT) system built from smaller JIT units of industry which is a collection of yet more JIT factories. It's JIT all the way down! And JIT doesn't work well when the spice isn't continuously flowing.