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Trade War: Containers Don't Lie, Navigating the Bluster
The multifront trade war, which started with solar panels and washing machines, quickly expanded to additional battles. Retaliatory tariffs were imposed, and the flow of global trade the world once knew was changed. Headlines reporting the China tariffs "on hold," "truces announced," or threats of additional tariffs being imposed feed the uncertainty, which roils markets to historic highs and dramatic selloffs. So how can one get a sense of the true status of trade and the good faith being pledged by countries like China? Through the trade flows! With 90 percent of the world's economy moved by maritime transport, the ocean highway is the best way for anyone to gauge the status of trade talks as well as monitor the flow of trade. Lori Ann LaRocco takes readers inside the world of global trade and shows us: Containers and tankers don't lie. This new book cuts through the political rhetoric and reminds us just how dangerous for the world economy and security a continuing trade war could be. Read the facts and learn some of the strategies business leaders are employing to navigate the trade wars.
208 pages, Paperback
Published November 13, 2019
12 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 26, 2021
I'm not sure this cobbled-together set of words fully qualifies as a "book," but here goes.
As you can guess from the 1 star, this book has a lot of problems. For starters, the structure is appalling - each paragraph is offset by an extra space. Why?
The graphics were not always fully formatted (high-enough resolution or color) for print, they were often garbled and difficult to decipher, they were not always relevant to the text, and several were re-used more than once (a couple were used 3 times!) in various parts.
Now, if you make it back to the acknowledgements and afterword, it is clear that this book had an agenda to support global trade. I feel like they had LaRocco write something, and then just dump a load of their existing graphics into the text without much thought.
In terms of the text itself, it is largely accurate in terms of the facts it presents. It is not particularly well-written, and LaRocco takes hyperbolic statements from her sources at face value and doesn't interrogate them or put them into context with her graphics (e.g., in one section, someone talks about how the market exploded because of the tariffs, and the graphic shows prices have merely rebounded to a level they were at in 2016, before there were any tariffs - it's nonsensical).
This book needed another edit, most importantly to clean up the graphics and better tie them to the text. The text itself is very dry and needed further context. Again, the agenda and timeliness must've hampered this, as it's a complex topic to handle in such a slim volume.
Also, the title is fine, but she's not only covering containers, she's also talking about LNG ships and tankers, but she doesn't do much to differentiate the various markets.
She has researched the topic well, though her understanding has its limits - for example, she makes the claim more than once that tanker owners prefer longer routes, as these are more profitable, but that is not accurate. Longer routes means your capacity is tied up and you have less flexibility in positioning your fleet, and the use of WorldScale means that both short and long routes are roughly equally profitable.
If the book were edited better, it'd be 3 stars, that's how impactful the terrible editing is.
As you can guess from the 1 star, this book has a lot of problems. For starters, the structure is appalling - each paragraph is offset by an extra space. Why?
The graphics were not always fully formatted (high-enough resolution or color) for print, they were often garbled and difficult to decipher, they were not always relevant to the text, and several were re-used more than once (a couple were used 3 times!) in various parts.
Now, if you make it back to the acknowledgements and afterword, it is clear that this book had an agenda to support global trade. I feel like they had LaRocco write something, and then just dump a load of their existing graphics into the text without much thought.
In terms of the text itself, it is largely accurate in terms of the facts it presents. It is not particularly well-written, and LaRocco takes hyperbolic statements from her sources at face value and doesn't interrogate them or put them into context with her graphics (e.g., in one section, someone talks about how the market exploded because of the tariffs, and the graphic shows prices have merely rebounded to a level they were at in 2016, before there were any tariffs - it's nonsensical).
This book needed another edit, most importantly to clean up the graphics and better tie them to the text. The text itself is very dry and needed further context. Again, the agenda and timeliness must've hampered this, as it's a complex topic to handle in such a slim volume.
Also, the title is fine, but she's not only covering containers, she's also talking about LNG ships and tankers, but she doesn't do much to differentiate the various markets.
She has researched the topic well, though her understanding has its limits - for example, she makes the claim more than once that tanker owners prefer longer routes, as these are more profitable, but that is not accurate. Longer routes means your capacity is tied up and you have less flexibility in positioning your fleet, and the use of WorldScale means that both short and long routes are roughly equally profitable.
If the book were edited better, it'd be 3 stars, that's how impactful the terrible editing is.
July 24, 2025
Well researched, great read. If you want to know what happens next with the current tariff moves it’s all in this book. The playbook has not changed from the first Trump presidency. If the dates were not in this book you would think it was being written in real time.
December 2, 2024
great book
Good book really insightful and great sources. I felt like I learned a lot about tariffs and the impacts on the economy.
Good book really insightful and great sources. I felt like I learned a lot about tariffs and the impacts on the economy.
November 24, 2021
Currently reading I love how it gives me the trade stats and facts alongside Trump Tweets & rhetoric. It is a unique read. If only all educational material was this fun to rip in to. I am assigning it for training for anyone in my field but all disciplines will find this enjoyable.
Update 23 Nov 2021: We featured this book in #VirtualBookClub on LinkedIn Live and Lori Ann LaRocco showed up for it ...twice. Unforgettable experience reading the book, sharing it with an audience and getting it straight from the author's mouth. Incredible.
So when people ask me who my favorite author is, well - you know my answer. This is a MUST READ for anyone in trade, supplychain, logistics and economics. I'm not the only one who says this. Read the epilogue!!
Update 23 Nov 2021: We featured this book in #VirtualBookClub on LinkedIn Live and Lori Ann LaRocco showed up for it ...twice. Unforgettable experience reading the book, sharing it with an audience and getting it straight from the author's mouth. Incredible.
So when people ask me who my favorite author is, well - you know my answer. This is a MUST READ for anyone in trade, supplychain, logistics and economics. I'm not the only one who says this. Read the epilogue!!
December 1, 2021
I read this as an introduction to the trade war and the shipping industry. I found the book educational and it opened my eyes to how trade works and what transpired under the initial years of the trade war between the US and China under the Trump admin.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews