[Previous entry: "Is Hollywood Whitewashing Ethnic Roles?"] [Next entry: "Russia-for-Russians law seen as racist pandering"]

06/11/2008: "Oil price crisis threatens to reverse globalisation"

With brutal efficiency, the oil price is beginning to duff up a monster of the 20th century: globalisation. Those great tentacles that gripped our world in a hideous embrace are suddenly weakening and the multinational octopus is looking a bit pale and sickly. The extraordinary rise in the price of crude oil is wrecking outsourced business models everywhere and distance from your customer is no longer merely a matter of dull logistics. Whether you are selling coiled steel or cut flowers, the cost of transport is a problem.

America's steel industry is enjoying an unexpected revival, its competitive edge sharpened by the tariff wall erected by the cost of shipping heavy, low added-value products across the Pacific. We hear fewer complaints from Americans about Asian steel-dumping; instead, it is Asian exporters who are feeling the pinch and the pressure is from inputs as well as shipping to customers.

[ A cheaper source of energy will have to be found for globalization to contine. Let's hope it fails. ]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article4107268.ece