Marc Levinson is a historian and economist in Washington. His books include The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and Outside the Box: How Globalization Changed from Moving Stuff to Spreading Ideas.
Iran’s seizure of an Israeli-linked container ship near the Strait of Hormuz on April 13 is just another ill wind buffeting the world economy. Houthi attacks on vessels navigating the Red Sea, drought-related reductions in the number of vessels that pass daily through the Panama Canal, and renewed piracy in the Indian Ocean also highlight the vulnerabilities of the long-distance supply chains on which the world economy depends. But those supply chains are slowly becoming less important. Trade in manufactured goods is likely to grow more slowly than the global economy in the years ahead, and consumers will feel the consequences.
One cause of the slowdown in trade is…