Where Are the Chips?

Ford, et.al., should ask the EPA where the chips are.  Ford is now telling us that their 2Q production will only be HALF of their original projection due to the 'chip shortage.'

Where are the chips?

...America used to be the place of chips.  So was Japan.  Japan still is to a modest degree but we are not, and again, the reason is that the labor costs a bit more.  In addition it's not legal to dump toxic waste all over the place in the United States, and chipmaking produces a lot of rather toxic stuff in the process; it's inherent in the processes involved to use highly-volatile and dangerous chemical etchants and similar.  These are expensive to properly recycle or neutralize and chemically react down to something that can be safely released.  In China they do not care about such things so it's cheaper to run the fab there than here because they can throw the effluent into the river without a care in the world....

By the way, we hinted that the US will have to literally blow up a couple of Taiwan chip plants when Red China takes over the island.  Ticker mentions the company here.

TSMC is, of course, in Taiwan.  We love to maintain that fantasy too -- that Taiwan is not China.  Uh huh.  Sure it isn't.

TSMC is building a plant in AZ--a deal struck with Trump.  Maybe that will help a bit.

The point of all this?  It is NOT merely "labor cost" which drives manufacturing offshore.  It is EPA, DoL, taxes, OSHA......and the cost of lawyers.