Where Does My Stuff Come From

Almost nothing is made where you think it is

Where Does My Stuff Come From? reveals the complex international supply networks behind products Americans use daily, from chocolate chips and computer chips to athletic shoes and frozen fish. Written by Willy Shih, a Harvard Business School professor with twenty-eight years of hands-on experience at IBM, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Eastman Kodak, this accessible guide demystifies global supply chains through everyday products.

Shih examines why so many goods get made far away, who actually makes them, and what it costs you. Why do my cashew nuts say they came from Vietnam when they were actually grown in West Africa? What do Henry Ford and lifestyles of the Chinese Communist Party have to do with making iPhones? What do Ozempic and beer have to do with laundry detergent? Things come from where they do for a variety of reasons, and this book will help you understand the economic logic behind it all.

Listeners will also discover that the brand on the label usually doesn’t tell you who actually made the product; why "just make it in America" is harder than it sounds; how tariffs and industrial policies can have an outsized influence on where things are made; and the tension behind reshoring, high-paying jobs, and having a wide choice of inexpensive products.