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Too Much Stuff
The U.S. distribution system is stuffed with stuff. Business inventories in April were up nearly 18% from a year ago. Inventories at non-auto retailers were up 20%. One merchant after…
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Trade Secrets
A couple of years ago, an exec at a major freight forwarder asked me to guess how many shipments each employee handled on an average day. Naively, I guessed 60…
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Supply Chain Risks and Rewards
Supply chains rarely received much attention in Washington until container ships started queuing outside the ports. Now, they’re a big deal. Even the White House is involved, first by appointing…
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The Cost of Slow
A few days ago, I chatted with a shipping executive who made a bold prediction. The future of ocean shipping, he told me, is slow: the maritime industry faces great…
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American History, Revised
It’s natural, I suppose, that we place ourselves in the center of history. Generations of American school kids have learned history as if Isabella and Ferdinand, Elizabeth I and George…
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Is Flight from Big Cities Propping Up Trade?
This week brought a flurry of articles about people fleeing many big cities for places that are warmer or cheaper. Collectively, they don’t make much sense — but they may…