While the coronavirus pandemic shuttered restaurants and battered the Mid-Atlantic crab industry last year, 2021 has brought more bad news: skyrocketing prices due to a severe shortage of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay. The cause of the shortage is something of a mystery.

Lumber prices are coming back down to Earth, but the crisis shows how many industries can be rocked by the price of wood.

The problem isn’t a lack of supply. Rather, it’s a lack of truck drivers.

A shortage of one of the most mundane items in daily life -- the humble aluminum can -- means beer fans are likely to find that some of their favorite brews are out of stock right now.

The popular drink’s main ingredient, tapioca pearls, could soon be in short supply because of delays in unloading cargo ships from Asia.