A service in our new service economies is dismantling, crating and shipping plant to South Asia where it will be reassembled for industrial use. I can't supply references, but I have come across such a service company carrying out a contract not far from here. The factory, in the textile sector, was closed, the employees laid off, and the plant shipped off. Not to China, but to Laos (or it could have been Viet Nam, Thailand...). The service company has done this job for several clients in the area, where the textile industry has all but shut down.

Another, though cruder and more risky, closing-down trick was arson. Burn the factory down (with consequent damage to machinery) and collect on the insurance (if you can). This one has gone out of favour as the insurance companies started looking seriously at what was going on.

But under our current dysfunctional financial system, cutting off China would make the going concerns who are supposed to rebuild the capacity at home under your scheme even more insolvent than they already are, since they would lose their Chinese assets without being able to default on their liabilities with domestic financial institutions in a non-disruptive manner.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.