Interesting piece in today's NYTimes about the impact of high fuel costs on globalization, arguing that the end of cheap oil may put a brake on just-in-time global supply chains. While nobody's predicting the end of offshore manufacturing — just yet — the price tag for shipping stuff around the planet has clearly moved front-and-center in calculations of total cost. Ikea, for example, just opened a US factory to be close to our huge market.

One likely outcome if transportation rates stay high, economists said, would be a strengthening of the neighborhood effect. Instead of seeking supplies wherever they can be bought most cheaply, regardless of location, and outsourcing the assembly of products all over the world, manufacturers would instead concentrate on performing those activities as close to home as possible.
— via The New York Times

Proving that Aquidneck Islanders have been right all along. Why on earth would you want to drive to Warwick?