economics

This idea has been around for some time. I first read about it in, "small pieces loosely joined", by Dave Weinberger (one of the authors of the cluetrain). Anyway, Micheal Schrage has a good post, "Round-off Error? Hardly!" MIT Technology Review that applies the math. to the idea.

It's a Flat World, After All, By Thomas  L. rRriedman, NY Times, Published: April 3, 2005