Don’t shed too many tears for globalization.
The steady flow of goods, services, capital and know-how across national boundaries hasn't come to a screeching halt. Nor has the global economy splintered beyond repair. Some shifts in investment, far from extricating U.S. industry from China's influence, may even enhance the latter's presence in supply chains.
Trendy terms like reshoring, friend-shoring and fragmentation are having a field day. They offer a pithy way to frame developments that, taken in isolation, might seem incremental. Such turns of phrase can also be safely lobbed about at Davos parties without fear of great challenge. But they can also suffer setbacks: U.S.-China trade surged to a record last year, in defiance of all the learned writings about decoupling.