Confessions of an Outsourcer by Timothy Brantingham

Confessions of an Outsourcer

An Insider Examines the Openings, Closings, Fortunes, and Fallout of the China Trade

Timothy Brantingham

Advantage Media · Print & ebook · May 26, 2026

Are we really losing at trade with China?

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Who it’s for
A supply-chain insider examines China trade, its gains, disruptions, and contested explanations.
Genres
Globalization, International Economics, Trade & Tariffs
Published
Advantage Media, May 26, 2026

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About this book

Are we really losing at trade with China? A thirty-year insider says the answer will surprise you. Timothy Brantingham has spent his career in the space between America and China, in the supply chain trenches where theory meets reality. As a fluent Mandarin speaker born in Taiwan, he built factories in Shenzhen and negotiated with suppliers in Ningbo. He saw firsthand how one billion people joined the global marketplace in barely two decades.

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He also watched as some American towns hollowed out and some families struggled. But the story politicians tell about winners and losers is incomplete. Confessions of an Outsourcer reveals the unspoken reality. Trade created enormous wealth, but we concentrated the gains at the top instead of investing in disrupted communities. China didn’t steal American jobs. Automation and unrestrained shareholder capitalism did. Drawing on personal stories from both sides of the Pacific, Brantingham examines myths about the China Shock while acknowledging real problems: intellectual property theft, currency manipulation, and the human cost of rapid change. He demonstrates how we can’t reverse globalization, but we can finally share its benefits fairly. This is the nuanced, honest reckoning the US-China relationship desperately needs, from someone who loves both countries and refuses to choose between them.

China Trade Up Close

A supply-chain insider examines China trade, its gains, disruptions, and contested explanations.

Come here for

  • Factory-building in Shenzhen and supplier negotiations in Ningbo
  • Personal stories from both sides of the Pacific

Expect

  • A challenge to familiar accounts of the China Shock
  • Discussion of intellectual property theft and currency manipulation

Where it sits

Globalization50%
Trade & Tariffs37%
International Economics35%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • International Economics
  • Globalization
  • Trade & Tariffs
Authors
Timothy Brantingham
Publisher
Advantage Media
Published
May 26, 2026
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
International Economics