Decoupling isn't phoney – The global trading system is starting to rearrange

Re:Decoupling isn't phoney – The global trading system is st... by bluGill on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @11:58AM (#37324075)

GM traces all their dependency trees down to the mines or other sources of raw materials. This is often 6-7 levels deep. However they know what to watch for in the news and so when something happens they can jump to find an alternate, which often gives them 3 months before the production lines stop.

They also do this so that they know nobody is using slave labor.

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Re:Decoupling isn't phoney – The global trading system is st... by davoneus on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @12:31PM (#37324558)

Yeah, I'm not convinced, given GM's (and most automakers) reaction to Covid and the continuing chip shortage.

Maybe things have changed; I'd certainly be glad to hear it. But we all know of Wall Street's long history of hatred towards physical inventory.

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Re:Decoupling isn't phoney – The global trading system is st... by giantrobot on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @01:11PM (#37325361)

> But we all know of Wall Street's long history of hatred towards physical inventory.

Accounting and taxes on physical inventory are pretty stupid and cause a lot of Wall Street's hate for inventory. The more costs there are to storing inventory the less desirable or even viable it is to store inventory.

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Re:Decoupling isn't phoney – The global trading system is st... by bluGill on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @01:32PM (#37325738)

GM miscalculated what COVID would do and made mistakes. Having information isn't always enough to make the right decisions. All we know from COVID is GM isn't perfectly able to mitigate issues, but they still try.

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Re:Decoupling isn't phoney – The global trading system is st... by wewtyflakes on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @02:29PM (#37326706)

When all countries shut down, it does matter? There is no alternate or backup. What could you have reasonably expected GM to do, even if they had perfect information?

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Re:Decoupling isn't phoney – The global trading system is st... by lostapathy on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @11:17PM (#37332057)

Not cancel all their orders and end up at the end of the line for chips.

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Re:Decoupling isn't phoney – The global trading system is st... by bsder on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @02:52PM (#37327056)

> Yeah, I'm not convinced, given GM's (and most automakers) reaction to Covid and the continuing chip shortage.

Automakers (and everybody else) reacted very quickly and shut down/decreased staff almost immediately.

Where they got caught out was in assuming that the semiconductor industry would return to normal quickly. That was a huge mistake.

Everything in business is so hyper-optimized to hold no inventory that nobody can absorb demand increase shocks of any amount, anymore. In addition, the fact the companies actively downsized during Covid meant that things couldn't even go back to pre-Covid levels quickly.

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