I do not see this as a "silver lining" at all. To say tha...

I do not see this as a "silver lining" at all. To say that there are now trends for factories to locate close to demand is not an alternative source of regional comparative advantage and disadvantage but rather an amplifier of other sources. Ultimately, customers are located in regions that have regional exports. A region that does not have large regional exports���and the prospect of growing more���will not be attractive to firms making long-run decisions and attempting to locate where there customers will be. It is likely to be a very uphill climb:

Rana Foroohar: The Silver Lining for Labour Markets | Financial Times: "The McKinsey Global Institute found that globalisation was actually bottom of the list of the top five reasons that labour���s share of national income has declined since the turn of the 21st century.... The biggest reason... supercycles in areas such as commodities and real estate have made those sectors, which favour capital over labour, a larger part of the overall economy.... Reason number two���a rise in the importance of intangible assets... Automation and the speeding up of capital substitution because of technological shifts have hurt traditional industrial areas disproportionately.... But in the future it will also radically favour a few regions... a mere 25 cities and regions could account for 60 per cent of US job growth by 2030.... Tech hubs will benefit, of course, as will commodity-rich areas and tourism centres catering to the wealthy. But so will... regions... capitalis[ing] on a silver lining.... When labour makes up less of the overall cost of producing goods and services, then offshoring jobs starts to make less sense. What does make sense is being closer to customer demand.... Companies such as Nike and Adidas have built highly automated 'speed-factories' in the US, Mexico and Germany to roll out the latest styles faster and more cheaply.... The solution: shift policy to support human capital investment.... If we continue to subsidise software without supporting people, the future looks grim.

#noted