It's all about stuff ...

The Port of Savannah in Georgia is the third-largest container port in the United States.

Credit Photograph by Erin Schaff

Look closely at this amazing photograph and one will see container ships lined up to offload stuff but cannot, due to supply chain problems. Now, consider what happens to the US economy when consumers cannot consume as the US economy, 85.7% driven by consumption, will face economic woes differing from every other industrialized country in the world. 

Seen below is a breakdown of the US economy.

Household consumption: 68.4%

Government consumption: 17.3%

Investment in fixed capital: 17.2%

Investment in inventories: 0.1%

Exports of goods and services: 12.1%

Imports of goods and services: −15%

By comparison, here's France's

agriculture: 1.7%

industry: 19.5%

services: 78.8%

With this in mind, see how global shipping becomes paralyzed as per the Port of Savannah, the 3rd largest port in the US.

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Like toy blocks hurled from the heavens, nearly 80,000 shipping containers are stacked in various configurations at the Port of Savannah — 50 percent more than usual.

The steel boxes are waiting for ships to carry them to their final destination, or for trucks to haul them to warehouses that are themselves stuffed to the rafters. Some 700 containers have been left at the port, on the banks of the Savannah River, by their owners for a month or more.

“They’re not coming to get their freight,” complained Griff Lynch, the executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority. “We’ve never had the yard as full as this.”

As he speaks, another vessel glides silently toward an open berth — the 1,207-foot-long Yang Ming Witness, its decks jammed with containers full of clothing, shoes, electronics and other stuff made in factories in Asia. Towering cranes soon pluck the thousands of boxes off the ship — more cargo that must be stashed somewhere.

Nearly 80,000 containers jam the port, 50 percent more than usual. Photograph by Erin Schaff

It's all about stuff ...

On a muggy afternoon in late September, Christmas suddenly felt close at hand. The containers stacked on the riverbanks were surely full of holiday decorations, baking sheets, gifts and other material for the greatest wave of consumption on earth.

Will they get to stores in time?

“That’s the question everyone is asking,” Mr. Lynch said. “I think that’s a very tough question.”

Yes indeed.