The success of online retailers has been linked to the demise of many high street shops in the UK, most recently HMV and Jessops. The remaining retailers have clear strategies which incorporate on-line shopping with home delivery and are often further supported by other initiatives, such as click and collect, where goods are ordered online but delivered to a third-party address, such as a local garage or convenience store, to avoid the disappointment of missed home deliveries.

The chip manufacturing story has some compelling and awkward moments. For instance, Samsung managed to land Apple as its first massive computation chip customer when the original iPhone was heading to market. Apple needed someone to make the ARM chip that would give the iPhone its low-power consumption and zip, and Samsung said it was up to the task. Of course, the two companies are competitors now.

The National Retail Federation estimates that nearly $9bn was lost by merchants in returns fraud in 2012. And according to a report from ThreatMetrix, online fraud resulted in about $3.5bn in lost revenue in North America last year.

A new econometric forecast model shows there is ample potential for U.S. manufacturing to resurge and, by 2025 add a significant number of good-paying manufacturing jobs, add to GDP growth, and help create the first surplus in the nation's goods and services balance of trade since 1975.