In today's International Herald Tribune, an article discussing investments in outsourcing providers pointed to some potentially significant headwinds ahead for the single-country providers (as compared to global suppliers). The combination of a global economic slowdown, combined with significant wage inflation in places like India, were seen as potential drawbacks to investing in global outsourcing providers.

Of course, predictions based on either boom or bust economies tend to take extreme positions, but the underlying analysis is interesting, particularly the points about protectionism becoming a more significant concern in troubled economies. Time will tell...