"The Box": The New Pencil

A classic essay for political economy students is "I, Pencil," an account of the creation of a common pencil that illustrates the power of division of labor and increasing returns from open trade. The BBC has offered us a 21st-century update of the story: they're following a shipping container for a year (via GPS) as a way to tell the story of modern globalization. The container is currently in Shanghai, having just dropped off a bunch of Scotch whisky from the U.K. and picked up clothing on its way to the U.S.