The tragic events in Japan may in the long run help improve the world economy. Right now you have centers of industrial output around the world. All our eggs are in a few baskets.
The centers in Japan have come to a grinding halt because of the disasters there driving down economic recovery. In order to avoid this in the future businesses should turn to a risk allocation model.
This model can easily be seen in mutual funds where instead of putting all your money in one stock you spread it around to a diverse portfolio of stocks.
The same can be done with industrial centers moving some of them out of say China and Japan into safer havens in the U.S thereby spreading the risk.
But where in the U.S.? The west coast is prone to earthquakes. The southwest has water limitations. The midwest has tornadoes. The southeast has hurricanes and tornadoes. That leaves the northeast particularly upstate New York.
This region is free from natural disasters but for some snow which is readily handled with their heavy removal equipment. New York State must promote its benefit to the world showing the state’s place in the new industrial risk allocation model.