Short on hangers, companies ask for help

Water use is restricted. The housing slump is crippling intertwined industries. The price of gasoline is we’ve-run-out-of-adjectives high.

Food prices are rising. Rice is rationed. Politicians are pointing fingers. (OK, that’s not news).

What’s next, you wonder?

Have you looked in your closet?

Clothes hangers are costing more and are in diminishing supply, and Rome cleaners are asking customers to recycle.

The sudden shortage is a direct result of an “anti-dumping” tariff imposed by the U.S. Department of Commerce in March on hangers imported from China.

The tariff, according to Phenix Supply Co, a laundry and dry-cleaning supplier, was imposed “in order to allow United States manufacturing to return to an environment that will allow them to compete and return jobs to this country.”