Nada Sanders Featured in The New York Times: How America’s Great Economic Challenge Suddenly Turned 180 Degrees
Container ships stretch far out into the Pacific, waiting days for their turn to unload goods at California ports. Automakers pause production because they can’t get enough of the computer chips that make a modern car work. Long-dormant restaurants finally see a surge of customer demand, but they can’t find enough cooks.
These are all headlines of recent days, and they have one thing in common: They show how America’s great economic challenge has turned 180 degrees in a breathtakingly short time.
Just a few months ago, the nation faced an enormous shortage of demand for goods and services, which threatened to prolong the pandemic-induced downturn long beyond the point at which the virus was contained. The central economic problem of 2021 is looking like the polar opposite. Businesses are beginning to face the challenge of producing adequate supplies of goods and services — whether of lumber or of cold beer — to satiate that resurgent demand.
“The global economy is vulnerable because it never really recovered,” said Nada Sanders, a professor of supply chain management at Northeastern University. “There is massive pent-up consumer demand, but it’s important to have supply and demand connected because when you have a supply shortage you don’t have the products consumers want.”