Here's what's supposed to happen: these containers get filled with stuff in China and Korea, then sent to the US to fill the shelves of Wal-Mart and everyplace else.  We buy the stuff, send the dollars back to China and Korea -- and we also send the empty containers back, too (ideally, they should be filled with our stuff, but we don't make stuff anymore.  They build ships and steel and toys and iPods and desk lamps and cars and we invented the Cinnabon). 

So the Hanjin Miami, where I've been for the past 3 weeks, has been anchored off the coast of Korea.  Waiting.  There's no rush to get the empty containers back to Korea and China, because there's no demand for stuff -- Christmas stuff, holiday stuff, Wal-Mart stuff -- back in the US.