Pirate attacks off the Somali coast have declined by more than 54 percent, leading to a softening of insurance premiums for the global shipping community but raising controversy surrounding the use of onboard private armed security contractors, according to the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre.

In a case that has potentially significant consequences for NFC and RFID applications, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on so-called "phone home" technologies used by computer rental companies to monitor consumer behavior. When contemplating the use of any technology that provides use, location or other information about a product, retailers should be careful to ensure consumers know - or are at least able to know - exactly what the product is doing once they leave the store.

No matter who gets elected president next month, the United States economy in 2013 will have only tepid growth. Does that sound like this year all over again? Yes, indeed.

System improvement is much more than problem solving. It is dual-staged, having two dependent parts that must be handled with the same enthusiasm to ensure success. The first segment is concerned with problem identification and solution finding, while the second segment deals with realizing a corrective action.

U.S.-based retailers looking to get into international shipping should expect to see an increase in revenue, according to Craig Turnbull, CEO of Bongo International, just as long as they understand the market, the shipping industry and the needs of their customers. "There is an opportunity to increase revenue from 3 percent to 10 percent," Turnbull said.

Wal-Mart has long had what is virtually beyond question the largest retail supply chain, as measured by number of suppliers, global reach, volume of material, and overall spend on supplier goods. Wal-Mart also has been touted as an innovator in supply-chain management, but it's more accurate to say it uses its sheer size and market power to manipulate the supply chain.

U.S. manufactured exports are expected to surge even more strongly in the coming years, according to research from The Boston Consulting Group, and - along with manufacturing jobs created from reshoring - may add 2.5 million to 5 million jobs by 2020.

It is not surprising that Americans regard their country as an innovation goliath. The world's brightest scientists compete to study at its universities, its feistiest entrepreneurs dream of moving to Silicon Valley and its savviest consumers buy its iPads and software programs. Yet America's innovation advantage is fading rapidly; indeed, in a growing number of areas it has already turned into an innovation deficit.

BT9, a cold-chain management solutions provider, has introduced Xsense, a system designed to ensure all stakeholders in the cold supply chain have full transparency and control over their perishables, anywhere in the world, at any given time.