we faced a lot of shortages over the last pandemic year of necessities we never thought would be in scarce supply. now that we once again have enough toilet paper on hand and lots of sanitizer to go around, we are facing a chip shortage, the kind used to power our technology. you care about this shortage. in this week's edition of "in too deep" i will tell you why. you may not know it, but your daily semiconductor chip use is very high, computers, video game consoles, the obvious ones, but you have them in your washing machine, your l.e.d. bulbs and even some toothbrushes. it started to unfold last year as the pandemic took hold. millions began stocking up on items that used microchips, especially as people hunkered down at home and remote learning became prevalent. the demand for products with chips rose and the supply fell.