President Obama publicly deplores growing economic inequality in the United States. At the same time, he is pushing for a new Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement on top of the trade agreements he won in 2011. Evidently, he sees no inconsistency here, but a growing body of economic research points to the adverse effects of lowered tariff barriers on manufacturing workers and their communities. Whether or not the losers are beginning to outnumber the winners, free trade is increasing the economic distance between the two.

Having spent most of his career as an executive in the chemical industry, Marv Schlanger, new CEO of CEVA Logistics, has a unique perspective on the global 3PL industry. He shares his views as "the new kid on the block" and explains why he is optimistic.

Long waiting lines of incoming trucks at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach create an unacceptable drag on productivity, says Mike Stark, president and CEO of Pacer Distribution Services and an active member of the Harbor Trucking Association. Stark explains how adaptive appointment software could help remedy this situation.

Big data can be a powerful enabler of better business decisions, but getting the right data to the right person in an actionable form presents huge challenges. Richard Sharpe, CEO of Competitive Insights, helps demystify the subject and explains why mastering big data is worth the effort.

For years developing countries have been thrice blessed. First, near-zero interest rates in the U.S. drove investors into bourses from Mumbai to Mexico as they searched for higher returns. Next, China emerged as the trading partner of choice as it gobbled up Indonesian palm oil, Cambodian hardwoods, and Brazilian iron ore. Finally, with the exception of the Middle East, the politics of most emerging-market countries were stable. The blessings have run out.

Over the next 17 years or so, global trade will more than double, China will come to own roughly a quarter of the world's merchant fleet, the number of offshore wind platforms will grow a hundredfold, and the U.S. will still be the dominant naval power. So go the predictions in Global Marine Trends 2030, a collaborative effort by ship classification society Lloyd's Register, UK defense contractor QinetiQ, and the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.