Global trade or just US trade?

Trade will muddle through somehow. Where there is a buck to be made people can be innovative and bold.

What worries me far more is environmental disasters. Large parts of insurance and accountability has disappeared with the arrival of the shadow fleet model.

Only a matter of time before some pristine coastline gets fucked by an oil spill and everyone just shrugs and ignores it

Sarah C. M. Paine has an excellent series of lectures on what it means to be a "continental" vs. a "maritime" power, and how the latter build wealth through trade and an international rules-based order. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9VSg4ZSwJs is probably the most succinct, and a good introduction to the idea. Dwarkesh Patel's channel has a more recent 9-part series: https://www.youtube.com/@DwarkeshPatel

Seems like it was written by AI, the Navy is "load bearing" in the first paragraph