My blogs of July 5 and 6 were concerned with how the price of oil may be the tipping point for a turn from unchecked outsourcing. The NY Times ran an article today covering the same topic.

Shipping costs start to crimp globalization: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/business/worldbusiness/03global.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss. The article uses the same example of furniture production, and cites security and global warming as key concerns as well. It does not mention the Unflat Earth, but this may be because Friedman writes for the NY Times.

Regardless, this shift from globalization to localization, inevitable with the arrival of Peak Oil (it may already have occurred) will weigh heavily on supply chains in the years to come. How will this impact your business? The need for security will not diminish--there are likely, in fact, to be even more locations in your value chain, since instead of mass manufacturing in the cheapest-bidded global locale, products will have to be produced in multiple places. Tying security directly to the production--manufacturing, printing, inspection and registry creation--will only be more important under this new reality.

 -Steve