In the early morning hours of March 23, 2021, the Ever Given entered Egypt’s Suez Canal during high winds and blowing sand.

The vessel stretched nearly a quarter-mile long… longer than the Empire State Building is tall.

Then suddenly, the massive cargo ship lost alignment.

Its bow slammed into one bank of the canal…

its stern drifted into the other…

and within minutes, one of the busiest trade arteries on earth effectively shut down.

Over 300 vessels piled up behind it over the course of six days, creating a supply-chain disruption on a scale little seen in modern history.

Within 24 hours, oil prices jumped an unprecedented 6.8%.

And some estimates suggested the blockage affected roughly $9.6 billion in trade… per day.

One ship.

One narrow passage.

And suddenly, the modern global economy looked a lot more fragile than many investors realized.

That’s the thing about chokepoints—

Most people barely notice them… until something goes wrong.

And according to geopolitical strategist Jim Rickards – who’s spent decades studying global financial systems and national security risks – the world may depend on more of these hidden chokepoints than investors realize.

In a recent note, Rickards argued that chokepoints are no longer just geographic:

“They can also be industrial, legal and even digital,” Rickards wrote. “If an industry depends on components from a single supplier, that supplier becomes a chokepoint. If it fails to deliver, an entire production chain can be disrupted.”

He pointed to examples ranging from shipping lanes and marine insurance to semiconductor supply chains and subsea internet cables.

In other words, many of the systems modern markets depend on may appear diversified on the surface… while quietly relying on a surprisingly small number of critical links underneath.

Per Rickards:

“It is a reminder that the global system has been optimized for efficiency over the past several decades, often at the expense of resilience.”

How do experienced advisers get ahead of disruptions that can potentially shake up a portfolio?

WorthNet Partner Adviser and Horizon Investment Services CEO Chuck Carlson has seen a lot in his 40-year career. Chuck is a contributing editor for one of the longest-running financial publications in the country, The Dow Theory Forecast, and his work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger, Barron’s, and more.

And according to him, there’s one crucial factor investors may want to pay attention to when evaluating chokepoints:

“The primary thing about chokepoints is their shelf life. Corporate America tends to be pretty resilient when it comes to dealing with chokepoints and how to work through and around them. COVID is a good, recent example of this,” he says. “But if a chokepoint persists for a longer-than-expected time, corporate profits are tested, which means stock prices will be tested.”

Bottom line: If chokepoints are perceived as temporary, they probably shouldn’t factor into the investment equation in a big way.

However, if chokepoints (e.g. “Will the Strait ever reopen?”) are looking semi-permanent, stock prices – especially in fields uber-sensitive to the chokepoints – will suffer.

That’s one reason Carlson believes investors should pay close attention to concentrated exposures inside both industries and portfolios.

“Making sure portfolios are not concentrated in markets with chokepoints is a way to manage through them,” he explains.

Carlson also believes some of today’s “hidden chokepoints” may still be underestimated by investors.

One big example?

AI-related data-center construction:

“One probably underestimated chokepoint is data-center buildout, because of the ‘not in my backyard’ mentality,” Carlson says. “I could see this community antagonism throw a timing wrench (delayed completions, difficulty in getting permits to build, etc.) into the group at some point.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean the long-term AI story is broken.

But it does highlight how modern chokepoints can emerge in unexpected places – and potentially create ripple effects far beyond a single company or industry.

P.S. The Ever Given is a modern-day lesson in second-order effects… something we spend a lot of time thinking about here at WorthNet—

how they can potentially ripple through markets, industries, and portfolios.

That’s part of the reason we’ve built a network of independent advisers with different perspectives and areas of focus to help investors think through portfolio construction, risk exposure, and long-term goals.

If you’d like, you can click the button below and complete WorthNet’s brief 90-second questionnaire to see whether a conversation with one of those advisers may make sense for your goals and interests.

Note: WorthNet is a promoter and receives compensation from advisers in its network for introductions to prospective clients, creating a material conflict of interest. WorthNet is not an investment adviser.

Charles B. Carlson, CFA®

CEO & Portfolio Manager of Horizon Investment Services

Investment Visionary, Seasoned Asset Allocator

Charles B. Carlson is a veteran investment adviser with over 25 years of experience in retirement planning, asset allocation, and portfolio management. He is CEO of Horizon Investment Services (CRD #110642), a proud member of the WorthNet partner adviser network.

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Last Revised: June 23, 2026