Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

A further examination of the state of the economic tailwind

This is an excellent review of what has helped the economy stay stable during the pandemic and some of the issues mostly centered around demand and supply chain. Spend a few minutes here and read NDd’s reasoning. A further examination of the state of the economic tailwind  – by New Deal democrat With no big […]

Battle of the Cultures in Getting the Job Done

Two completely different cultures trying to understand one another. I have worked for Japanese, Korean, and German management. How the Japanese and Koreans addressed me was far different than how they address the workers of their descent. The Germans were far more open than the other two cultures. Overhead Costs; TSMC may not be burdened […]

Unfinished Ford Truck Inventory Piling Up as seen from Space

Once again, automotive is building inventory dues to parts shortages. Semiconductors appear to be an issue again or the issue never went away. Much of this is due to automotive OEMs trying to drive parts cost down to the tiers. Many of them are running tight budgets due to the OEMs. They will not hold […]

The Semiconductor Bill and Moderna Billionaires

A lot has been said about building semiconductor manufacturing plants in the US. One plant grows the silicon wafers and the other plant fabricates (fabs) the semiconductors. The manufacture of semiconductors is not labor intensive. Growing wafers is boring business as one engineer told me a decade back. The US did manufacture much of its […]

Global Manufacturing of Semiconductors

There is a lot of noise about the shortage of semiconductors. I am not going to explain it all here. You will find the explanation of manufacture in the articles. It takes weeks to grow wafers and then Fab semi-conductors. Not maintaining orders for semiconductors creates shortage when production starts up again. The purchase of […]

Fourth Quarter GDP (2021) – Strongest Year in Decades

WSJ reports Stocks rose broadly Thursday morning after the GDP report, but they retreated later in the day, with the Nasdaq falling 1.4%, the S&P 500 dropping 0.54%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average off 0.02%. Thursday’s report contained warning signs. Most of the growth owed to companies’ restocking rather than people and firms buying […]

Manufacturing Process for Semiconductors Today. Could There be Better Supply Results?

“Could it be a better result? By this, I mean should there really have been an extreme shortage and long lead times?” A fellow writer was an engineer at OnSemi. As he stated once, his job was watching the crystals (future “wafer material) grow. More coming on this comment shortly. You will not be experts […]