Throughout 2008, MarketWatch Quarterly offered articles examining the individual BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) as interleaved manufacturer, supplier, and consumer markets with the semiconductor supply chain.  The global economic downturn (I'll say it, global recession) has an academic upside: a thorough testing of the level of 'decoupling' of the emerging economies from developed economies.

So, what of decoupling?  Well, turns out that the answer is: "It depends."  Considering valuations for BRIC compared to the S&P 500, there is no distict trend difference in the short term, but one does emerge along a 10-year trajectory.  More precisely, it does not appear that a clear case for considering BRIC as a unified group exists anymore. 

As a result of the global recession, another question has emerged, are we entering a new period of 'deglobalization' or will this prove to be as misleading as 'decoupling' is today? 

Either way, these macro economic issues are critical to the semiconductor industry because of our highly globalized supply chain and integrated markets that are dependent upon currency fluctuations, trade agreements, diverse end-markets, and so forth.