Tag Archives: manufacturing

Lorain, OH Keep It Made In America Town Hall Meeting

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Thursday evening I attended the “Keep It Made In America” Town Hall in the John Spitzer Conference Center at Lorain County Community College, an impressive, large campus. Lorain, Ohio is another town with closed factories, boarded-up houses, high unemployment, and ringed by the national big-box vulture chains whose business model is to suck the remaining funds away to Wall Street.

Driving into Lorain

As you drive from town to town in Michigan and Ohio you see one after another a ring of the “big box” stores and national chain stores around each city. You also see the “brownfields” of rusted-out, closed factories, empty, falling-down buildings. Then you go to the downtown and you see boarded up houses, empty storefronts, deteriorating and deteriorated communities, idle people standing on corners. As you drive into these towns you can just see what is happening in a nutshell.

You used to hear about how Wal-Mart was predatory, how it would show up in an area and after a while the downtowns would dry up, local business-owners would go broke, local business employees would be laid off, and the local people would have to work for low wages at Wal-Mart, while the region’s spending money would go off to the wealthy few who run these things.

Well a juicy story of devastation like that one gets around, and there are those who hear it and say, “Hey, that’s a great idea, I wanna get me some of that.” So the Wal-Mart business model has taken off and now there are any number of these vultures, ringing the cities and towns around the country, so often private-equity owned. They are draining away the lifeblood of the downtowns, fighting off the unions to keep wages down, even demanding tax breaks to move in and “create jobs.” You see all the same stores circling every town now, running all of the local and regional businesses unto the ground.

Here are some pictures from the inner Lorain area but you see it all around: (click for large)
P1000784P1000802 P1000791P1000795P1000789P1000787

The Lorain Town Hall Meeting

As I said, the meeting was at Lorain County Community College. The turnout was good, a number of candidates, local officials, and people from the community.

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The opening speaker was Congresswoman Betty Sutton. “Manufacturing is the backbone of our economy. It’s the backbone of our nation. We’re aware here in Northeast Ohio that it created and promises to support the idea of a middle class.”

Sutton talked about the bill passed recently by the house that confronts Chinese currency manipulation. She hopes the Senate will also pass this, but we all know how difficult it is to get anything through the Senate. She also said that unlike Wall Street shuffling paper money around, what creates real value is the manufacturing of goods, which supports four surrounding jobs in the economy for every manufacturing job.

Following the opening remarks Scott Paul of the Alliance for Ameican Manufacturing presented a number of facts about manufacturing in Ohio and the country. 624,700 people work in manufacturing in Ohio, down from 1,021,000 in 2000. 39% of Ohio’s manufacturing jobs were lost in the last decade. For the country the last decade was the worst ever, worse than great depression. We lost 1/3 of all manufacturing jobs with 50,000 manufacturing facilities closed.
“When I grow up will there be jobs in America?”
Next came a panel, moderated by Scott Paul, with

  • Larry Taylor, Plant Manager, US Steel Corp’s works in Lorain
  • Dave MaCall, Director of District 1 for the United Steelworkers, USW in Ohio
  • Kelly Zelesnik, Dean of engineering technologies at LCCC Elyria

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A video of a question from a young person in Lorain: “When I grow up will there be jobs in America?” was asked of the panel.

MaCall: there will be jobs, because we have to take action, have to level the playing field. Things we need to do. Not be protectionists, have fair and balanced trade. But we need net exports. That’s how we grow. Every other country has a value-added tax so when someone makes a product that country writes a value-added check, so it is a subsidy on them and a tariff for us. America’s Visa card has run out.

We have 100 million tons of demand for steel in the US, has been for decades, last year demand was 60 million tons. Huge numbers of people laid off, from lack of demand, lack of consumption, and illegal trade.

Kelly, LCCC is partnering with manufacturing. LCCC invested in needs of community, 2 of 4 cornerstones of the college are education and economic development. LCCC is helping grow local economy with a new sensor center to develop and commercialize sensor technology. Industry and educational partners and entrepreneurs to access the center to develop and test prototypes and shorten the time to send products to the market as well as train employees. The center is an attractant to new businesses.

MaCall: We need national policies like every other country has. Businesses need to know there is a policy in America that will make sure there is access to capital, etc. For green startups, it is hard for companies to make investment when other countries helping their industry and we are not. Wall Street gets refinanced, now they’re holding it back, won’t let small businesses have access at reasonable rates.

Paul Q: What is the role in trade laws to keep steel competitive and on level playing field?
Taylor – We need strong trade policies that are strictly enforced. If they are not enforced they do no good, if we have this there will be jobs in future, level playing field. We stopped China on the steel tubes, but now other countries are producing subsidized product, we don’t get government subsidies, they do, we must have strong policies that we enforce.

Concluding

Over and over I am hearing these themes emerge: trade is good but stop illegal trade practices, level the playing field to enable us to compete, put together a national policy, improve trade education and training, invest in our future.

This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.
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The last three photos by Ike GITTLEN: USW

Jackson Mich Keep It Made In America Town Hall — An Energized Event

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Yesterday I was in Jackson Michigan to attend the 2010 “Keep it Made in America” Town Hall Tour meeting. It was a very well-attended event, and everyone I spoke with seemed energized because someone is out there talking about what they consider an important issue, and thought that manufacturing is vitally important to the country, for jobs, and so we can pay our bills.
Jackson
Jackson, for your information, makes a claim to be the city where the Republican Party was founded in 1854. One thing is for sure, it was a very, very, very different party then.
I last visited Jackson three years ago. The downtown was dreary, and I remember walking around trying to find a place to buy a sandwich, giving up and ending up at a dreary fast-food place outside of town. Like Flint, things appear to be changing. In Flint is has been public/private government/business partnerships that has helped revive the downtown and the area. The University of Michigan has opened a Flint campus right downtown and you can feel the difference. I’m moving fast on this road trip so I didn’t have time to investigate what is behind the different feeling in Jackson. But I had trouble getting to flint because I kept passing all these highway construction zones with ARRA (stimulus) signs. The official U-3 unemployment rate is down to 12.8% from 15.2 earlier this year.
The Town Hall
The meeting was in the Commonwealth Community Center, downtown. The large room was full, approx 275-300 attendees. I asked around and things were getting started and people were getting seated and it was a diverse audience politically, including some Tea Party supporters. Everyone I spoke with seemed energized because someone is out there talking about what they consider an important issue, and thought that manufacturing is vitally important to the country, for jobs, and so we can pay our bills. A recent poll found that 74% of tea party supporters want government strategy for manufacturing
The format was speakers, a brief PowerPoint presentation, buffet dinner and a panel on manufacturing featuring local business, labor and others. Following is a brief summary trying to catch the essence of what some of the speakers said.
Jackson’s Mayor Karen Dunigan gave a very short welcoming talk, saying “Every day politicians speak about jobs, and yet we are still losing jobs.”
Next, Lansing Michigan’s Mayor and candidate for Governor Virg Bernero spoke, saying that when they say we are done with manufacturing, that it is a thing of the past, they are saying we are done with America being a great country. You can’t just have consumption, you have to make things. It isn’t gross domestic consumption, it is gross domestic product, with “product” being a key word.
Congressman Mark Schauer, MI-7, “Cash for Clunkers invested in auto industry, got our steel plant to reopen, 3 shifts of workers now here in Jackson, we need to do more of that, fight for jobs in Michigan,” and he had a debate in an hour gotta go. “We need to make decisions about educating our workforce, trade, make sure our dollars are not stimulating jobs in China… We were the arsenal of democracy, and China is spending twice what we are spending on renewable energy technology.”
The Panel

  • Sharon Collins, local restaurant owner: The Pickle Barrel Deli
  • Mark Gaffney, President Michigan AFL-CIO
  • Amanda Proctor, Exec Director, Shop Rat Foundation
  • Bill Rayl, Jackson Area Manufacturers Association, also on the Council of the National Association of Manufacturers
  • Moderator: Scott Paul, Alliance for American Manufacturing

    • From notes:
    The Shop Rat Foundation offers hands-on skilled trade education to kids, creating the next generation of proud skilled workers and citizens (shop rats).
    Rayl: The federal government needs to step up in this country and realize that the gloves are off on the global playing field, it’s not a playing field it’s a war field, they’re cleaning up, free trade is one thing fair trade is another. We need government to help us out, to fight these trade practices.
    We need to be able to go out there and compete. We want ot do it. China has a big market for us when we can play fair but they hamstring us, one hand tied behind our back, Chinese government is fighting us all the time.
    Scott: There may be difference between business and labor on a lot of issues but on American manufacturing there is very little disagreement, especially on holding China actable, R&D tax credit, there is a lot of support for doing all of it.
    Rayl: Manufacturing is not a Democrat or Republican issue, it’s an American issue, we can make anything you throw at us, we have great skilled workers out there, companies that want to keep those people in good paying jobs, give health care and all that stuff, but we can’t do it if we can’t compete on an even playing field.
    Gaffney: A trade agreement that lets a company just pack up a factory and move it to another country just because wages are lower, leaving behind a devastated community and unemployment, is just bad policy.
    As the country tries to get out of bad economic times hopefully the people in Washington figure out that manufacturing is the way to help. IF there aren’t good-paying jobs for people to go back to, what are we going to do?
    Amanda:
    Q) Filling a need, do you think what we have now with our high schools and Community Colleges is enough?
    A) Definitely some great programs out there. Lot of great but definitely not enough, we’re trying to push, we need to focus on education more than we are. A lot of people don’t think it’s not worth the time to train a 6th grader, don’t think that far back, but I want to stress you’ve got to get them young, get them interested, without middle and high school programs going on anymore kids don’t know about trade skills, they’re afraid of tools, but get them doing that, they are more confident, they will go out get a job or go on to vocational schools.
    Manufacturing In Michigan
    I guess I don’t have to tell you that Michigan is known for automobiles. But manufacturing in Michigan was wiped out in the 2000-2008 period. There were 897,100 people working in manufacturing in Michigan in 2000. There are 466,400 people working in manufacturing in Michigan now.
    Other Jackson Town Hall Resources
    MLive.com covered Virg Bernero speaking at the rally.
    Steve Capozolla was live-blogging Jackson’s town hall event last night.
    A local radio station has posted some audio from the event here.
    Details of the Keep It Made In America Town Hall Tour
    And this: American Made Shopper had a display at the meeting. They only sell items that are Made In America.
    This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.
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    Flint, Michigan: A City Ahead Of The Rest Of Us

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    This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.
    I am in Flint, Michigan today, getting ready to drive down to Jackson for this evening’s “Keep It Made In America” Town Hall. Flint has been through it and has come out the other end. Now the rest of us are going through what Flint has been going through.
    Many people know about Flint from the 1989 movie Roger & Me. In the documentary General Motors had closed factories in its home town, outsourced the jobs, and left the community behind. This sort of corporate behavior was becoming common by 1989 but it was still shocking that an American company would do this to Americans and America. The movie focused on the effect this had on Flint and its people. You might remember seeing block after block of boarded-up homes and people talking about how the try to get by.

    This has now been a familiar story for decades, companies closing factories, outsourcing the jobs, abandoning the communities, a few at the top pocketing the money and leaving absolute devastation in their wake.
    I was last in Flint three years ago, visiting relatives. Twenty years after the movie Flint was still struggling, in depression, its downtown full of closed stores and many of the blocks of boarded-up homes were worse, if anything. There were “For Sale” signs everywhere, and this was before the national housing bust. But there were many signs of people learning to cope. The Farmer’s Market was going strong. The University of Michigan was working on a new campus, the Mott Foundation and others were working on various approaches to try to help the community…
    So here I am again. You can see three years worth of progress here. Revival is clearly occurring. The new U of M Campus is open and clearly making a difference. Part of the downtown is clearly revived, including the Durant Hotel restoration, while other parts are under construction. The Farmer’s Market was named one of the best in the nation. There are fewer “For Sales” signs around. All around there is a better mood. Crime is still bad, there are still abandoned buildings, but a corner is turned.
    Flint Farmer’s Market:

    Flint Ahead Of Nation
    So Flint has been through it and has come out the other end. Now the rest of us are going through what Flint has been going through. And the rest of the country has a ways to go before we will see the other end of this. Roger & Me was 1989 and now it is 2010. The same crap is still going on, and more so. As I said, in 1989 it was still shocking that American corporations would treat Americans and America the way they did. But now we have been through another two decades of the few at the top closing factories, outsourcing the jobs, devastating the communities, pocketing the money and then using their financial power to demand tax breaks to further defund government. The difference is that now we all live with the effects, not just Flint.
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    House Committee Approves China Currency Bill

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    This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.
    The House Ways and Means Committee just approved a bill that pushes China to raise the value of its currency. It looks like the bill will go to a vote on the House floor next week. This is a very big deal because it is a “second front” pushing China to bring its currency to market rates. President Obama met with Chinese Premier Wen yesterday and most of their 2-hour meeting was taken up discussing this issue, and today he gets backing from the House. This tells China that we are serious, that it is more than just the administration talking, and they have to start doing the right thing.
    China has been manipulating its currency to keep it low, which means goods made in China cost less in world markets. This, combined with other trade manipulations, has created a huge imbalance in world markets. It moves industries, jobs, expertise, money and power to China, and has created a huge “bubble” of imbalance that threatens the world’s economy. Currently the interests in China and elsewhere, including here, that benefit from the imbalance have the upper hand. But this vote demonstrates that the rest of us, here, in China and around the world, that would benefit from a rebalancing are rallying and challenging the current policies.
    Bloomberg: China Currency Measure Heads for House Vote After Panel Approval

    The measure would let companies petition for higher duties on imports from China to compensate for the effect of a weak currency. President Barack Obama “does not take a position on this specific legislation,” Jeff Bader, his director of Asian affairs, said yesterday.
    “China’s exchange-rate policy has a major impact on American businesses, and American jobs, which is what this is all about,” Levin said before the vote.
    The U.S. trade deficit with China widened to $145 billion in the first seven months of this year, from $123 billion for the same period in 2009. The expanding deficit, the unemployment rate lingering at almost 10 percent and polls showing Democrats’ seats at risk heading into the elections have added support for the bill, which has been discussed since 2005.

    China had agreed to start rebalancing its currency, but the currency has moved only 1 percent since the agreement – nothing near the 40% some claim it needs to move. Meanwhile our trade deficit with China has increased. China’s Wen claims that China is still a poor country and needs this protection to help it build the industries that will help its people rise out of poverty,

    China might now be the second largest economy in the world, but Premier Wen insisted at the UN General Assembly that the “real China” was still in the “primary stage of socialism” and remains a developing country.
    Pointing out that 150 million Chinese people still live in poverty, Wen said many regions in central and western China were still very poor and this is the “real China”.
    “Taken as a whole, China is still in the primary stage of socialism and remains a developing country… These are our basic national conditions. This is the real China,” he said.

    The way to bring China, now the second largest manufacturer in the world, out of poverty is to trade fairly and work with its trade partners, not to manipulate the rules and create a huge imbalance that threatens the economy of the entire world.
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    American Jobs Tragedy

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    This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.
    The stimulus worked but was not enough. Here is the result:
    JobLossesAlignedAug2010
    This is known as “the scariest jobs chart,” from Calculated Risk.
    Robert Reich: The Great Jobs Depression Worsens, and the Choice Ahead Grows Starker

    The number of Americans willing and able to work but who cannot find a job hasn’t stopped growing since the start of 2008. All told, about 22 million Americans are now jobless. Add in those who are working part-time who’d rather be working full time, and we’re up to 25 million.
    And because most families depend on two paychecks, the practical impact is almost double.

    The DC and business elite don’t feel it. They explain the problem by blaming the people they put out of work, saying the unemployed are just lazy, and unemployment checks keep them from looking for work. They’re doing just fine and taking good care of each other.
    Frank Sobatka describes one of the main reasons for the problem:

    Frank’s right. Our choice is to manufacture or borrow (until we can’t.) Other countries are being smart on trade. Why aren’t we? We really, really need an industrial policy to guide us back to growth. We can build a new economy from old roots. I mean, what were we thinking? We turned our companies into buy-sell commodities with our country and people as “costs.” So we ended up caught in a machine that grinds us up. This has led to and attitude that citizens are an infestation, if you feed them they breed, like “the help” — you have to make them work, certainly no longer as the people in charge.
    We thought moving a factory was “trade,” when it is really about evading democracy’s protections of We, the People. We didn’t see that Wall Street was at war with the real economy and We, the People, paying out $140 billion for bonuses but zero for America’s future. We thought getting back to “normal” was an option. But really, It’s The Economic Paradigm, Stupid!
    Here’s another part of the problem: Tax cuts are theft. Our investment in infrastructure created the conditions that enable commerce to prosper – the bounty of democracy. In return we ask those who benefit most from the enterprise we enabled to share the return on our investment with all of us – through good wages, benefits and taxes.
    What Can We Do?
    Here are parts of the solution: We need a democracy tariff at the border to stop greedy employers from stepping around the wage, safety and environmental protections that We, the People fought to build. We need to tax the wealthy and Wall Street to pay to fix up the infrastructure and public structures that enabled their wealth. Tax Cuts Leave Nothing Behind — Infrastructure Investment Leaves Behind Infrastructure. Not only that, Tax Cuts Caused The Deficits, Therefore…
    Where Are The Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs? It’s The JOBS, Stupid! Why DC Elites Don’t See This?
    P.S. if you have time, please click the links.
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    GDP Revised Down — Conservative Trade Policies Exporting Our Growth And Jobs

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    This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.

    When we pack up a factory here — and all of its jobs and supply chain and its support/.maintenance structure — and send it all over there to a country that doesn’t have the wage and safety and environmental protections we have, just to save a bit of money today we are also sending them the ability to make money in the future. And that future is here now.

    The country’s second-quarter GDP was revised down sharply to 1.6%. So the "stimulus," by raising GDP somewhere between 1.7% and 4.5%, is the only thing that has kept us from falling completely over the cliff. But we can’t just get by on stimulus forever (especially when we waste one-third of it on tax cuts that leave nothing behind but debt). We have to fix the causes of the problems.

    One big reason we are having so much trouble is that we haven’t solved the trade problem and our efforts to get growth going are just being used to help other countries grow.

    In The Washington Post today, Flow of imports drags down economic growth:

    The government said the trade deficit subtracted almost 3.4 percentage points from second-quarter GDP – the largest hit from trade in 63 years.

    Corporate conservatives talked us into sending our manufacturing out of the country. In the short term some executives got huge bonuses as assets and capacity were sold off and payrolls reduced. But in the long term the ability for the country to earn money has been sent "over there."

    I recently came across this talk by Ian Fletcher, author of Free Trade Doesn’t Work, given at the Heritage Foundation. I recommend watching, and clicking through to order his book. Ian doesn’t come from the left or right (watch him make this clear in the video) but instead just looks at trade with a scientific, fact-based, analytical approach.

    Comparative Advantage?

    Here is the most important point he makes, 20 minutes in (use that slider bar), in regards to the problem of moving factories to cheap labor countries. Comparative statics: Free-trade economists argue that cheap labor is a "comparative advantage." Fletcher explains that this means that if they are already making something more efficiently, today, then our best move today is to buy it from them. But it doesn’t make sense to just pack up an industry and reassemble it in a different country with low wages because then you are doing nothing more then sending away your ability to earn a living.

    Yes, as I said, some people make a bunch of money in the short term doing that. But "it’s obviously going to cause a decline in our capacity to produce goods and services in the future."

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    Our Growth Is Outsourced, Like Our Jobs

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    This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.
    In the news today, a familiar story: imports increased, exports declined. About $50 billion in one month alone. The trade gap isn’t just costing jobs, it’s a significant factor in the slow recovery as well. See below.
    In 2005, when we were halfway down to where we went, I wrote a post at my own blog titled, The Trade Problem. With (my) permission, here is the entire post:

    LeavingSF1

    View of San Francisco from Sausalito.

    LeavingSF2

    See how this ship is riding high off the water? This ship is loaded with empty containers, bound for China.
    Ships come into the port loaded with goods that we buy from China. But China doesn’t buy very much from us. So we have to send ships back loaded with empty containers. (Well almost empty, they’re actually filled with dollars, and jobs, and the future.)

    June 2010 Trade Numbers: We’re Back To Terrible
    That was 2005, And now we’re importing shiploads of stuff again, and sending the ships back filled with cash – and what’s left of our future. The trade deficit widened to $49.9 billion in June,

    The trade deficit in the U.S. unexpectedly widened in June to the highest level since October 2008 as consumer goods imports rose to a record and exports declined.
    [. . .] Exports from the U.S. decreased to $150.5 billion from $152.4 billion, reflecting fewer shipments abroad of semiconductors, computers and steelmaking materials. Imports increased in June to $200.3 billion from $194.4 billion, led by telecommunications equipment, automobiles and consumer goods such as pharmaceutical preparations, televisions and furniture.
    The quantity of imported petroleum increased, while the price per barrel fell to $72.44 from $76.93 the prior month, according to today’s report.

    Trade Deficit Cuts Jobs And GDP
    We are not just outsourcing jobs, we are outsourcing our own economic growth to others! Charles McMillion of MBG Information Services writes that, “the worsening trade deficit cut the Q2 GDP growth rate by -2.8%.”

    That is, if trade and production losses in Q2 had remained at Q1 levels, all other things equal, GDP would have risen at a 5.2% rate in Q2 rather than the actual estimate of meager 2.4% growth. Today’s report suggests BEA must now revise its estimate which could show the worsening trade deficit lowering the Q2 growth rate by a full -3.0% leaving growth at just 2.2% with, apparently, worse to come.

    A lot of people think it’s just “old stuff” like steel that is losing out. But look at this chart:


    Note how the chart has to be extra tall to fit the huge decline in exports of advanced products. There are more charts with more bad news. (PDF)
    Congress And The President’s New “Make It In America” Initiative
    Congress and the President are trying to do something about it, with the new “Make It In America” initiative. CAF’s Bob Borosage in Politico today, Save American manufacturing,

    More than 75 percent of Americans support a “national manufacturing strategy to make sure that economic, tax, labor and trade policies work together to help support manufacturing in the U.S.”
    Not surprisingly, the Democrats’ lead initiative now is the National Manufacturing Strategy Act … It calls for quadrennial review of U.S. manufacturing policy — including assessing strategic industries, reviewing tax and trade subsidies and requiring agencies to coordinate strategies.
    . . . Obama’s “new foundation” for the economy offers first steps: public investment in 21st-century infrastructure, in education and training, in research and development. Yet these, slighted in years of conservative control, are necessary but not sufficient.
    To ensure products are “made in America” requires hardheaded steps to balance trade and challenging the mercantilist countries, starting with China.

    AAM: “Wrong Direction” and “Giving China Benefit of Doubt on Currency Falls Short
    Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) Executive Director Scott Paul on this morning’s latest monthly U.S. trade figures:

    “The trade deficit is headed in the wrong direction, and that’s bad news for American workers. …
    “The White House strategy of giving China the benefit of the doubt on currency has fallen short. The House and Senate must now step in and pass strong legislation to penalize China’s currency manipulation and bring down our trade deficit. Over the longer term, we’re encouraged that the recent focus by Congress and the Administration on ‘Made in America’ solutions to revitalize our manufacturing base and create jobs will bear fruit …
    “The drop in exports is also an enormous blow to the Administration’s efforts to double American exports. … The biggest internal obstacle is the lack of an aggressive strategy to boost American manufacturing. ….”

    Are we right back to the “new normal” with even more jobs and industries being shipped overseas? Or are we going to learn from the past and do something about it this time? Conservative “free trade” and “free market” nonsense just doesn’t work. It’s time to leave that stuff behind instead of trying to accommodate and appease, and all the resulting backup that brought us, keeping us from moving forwards: We need “Buy American” in procurement. We need high-speed rail and local mass transit projects. We need a huge infrastructure rebuilding and modernization effort. We need the Local Jobs for America Act. We need a national Renewable Energy Standard. We need to set a high price on carbon. We need to build out the smart electrical grid. We need to address Chinese currency manipulation and trade violations. We need to restore taxation of the wealthy. We need free education for our people. We need to extend unemployment and COBRA subsidies for the “99ers.” We need to increase the minimum wage. We need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. We need Immigration Reform.
    And this is just some of what we need. And these all just buy time until we can figure out how to restructure the economy by reforming who gets what for what and ideas of what “ownership” means, so that we can all move into a prosperous, progressive future.
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    Bravo To Congress’ Making It In America Push — What It Still Needs

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    This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.
    House leaders deserve praise for fighting for working people by launching a “Make It In America” initiative which they officially unveiled today. The country still badly needs an immediate job-creation effort, but this is a very important longer-term initiative for reviving America’s manufacturing base and restoring our competitiveness in the world economy. Good work!
    Manufacturing is the core of our country’s income. Making things that we sell is how we earn money to buy things that others make. This is why it is so important to restore America’s manufacturing base and the infrastructure that supports it. People want to go into a store and have a choice to buy things that are made here.
    This week these important bills made it to the House floor: (click through for details)

  • National Manufacturing Strategy Act
  • Clean Energy Technology Manufacturing and Export Assistance Act
  • End the Trade Deficit Act

    • As the Congress rolls out this initiative here are important components it should include:

    Buy American
    Public money should be going to our people. This is what other countries, like China, are doing with domestic preferences and “indigenous innovation” policies.

  • Pass “Made in America” policies in every phase of any manufacturing plan, boosting domestic content requirements in federal procurement, (state and local government should do the same with their procurement policies).

    • Trade policies
    (Is “trade” even the right word for making the same things in other countries that we used to make here.)
    We are doing very little to combat the mercantilist nations, in particular China and Germany. China manipulates its currency and will not match its exports with imports. Germany is limiting domestic consumption — the resulting trade surplus is out of balance.

  • End tax incentives to move production overseas; create incentives to keep production at home. Current laws allow corporations to defer taxes on income earned overseas, which almost forces companies to develop schemes to make goods outside the country.
  • Require tariffs on goods from countries that manipulate currency, to overcome the pricing advantage this creates.
  • What about a “democracy tariff?” This is a tariff on imports to counter the advantages that come from moving factories to countries where the people don’t have the power or opportunity to insist on fair wages and worker and environmental protections.

    • Encourage the “Green Economy”
    Stimulate American manufacture of wind turbines, solar panels, biofuels, etc. This creates jobs and makes us competitive in the new green economy that will replace the carbon economy.

  • Create a domestic non-carbon energy market with a strong Renewable Energy Standard (RES) and a direct carbon tax (since the Senate has blocked cap-and-trade).
  • Use government procurement to help trigger this market. Phase in purchases of non-carbon energy, creating a strong market, triggering increased investment. Procurement should require American-made components. For example, wind-power purchases should require American-made turbines are used.

    • Infrastructure
    Our roads, bridges, rail, water and electrical systems, etc. are the backbone of a competitive economy. The infrastructure enables business to thrive. If it is not kept in good working order and up-to-date (and it has not been), businesses do not thrive (and they aren’t).

  • We need the Congress to create a National Infrastructure Investment Bank, capitalized with public money to lure private capital for investment in rebuilding key components of America’s infrastructure. Stop the obstruction – we need this!
  • Rebuild existing, crumbling infrastructure. This “spending” investment earns the money back many times over.
  • Pass the surface transportation reauthorization bill. This will boost American industry as while creating jobs, saving energy and incentivizing green development.
  • Build new infrastructure-for-the-future like high-speed internet and high-speed rail and a national electric “smart grid”.
  • Require companies to make the infrastructure components in America.

    • This is a brief outline of some of the needed components in a Make It In America strategy. These are things that Congress can do. Congress must not back away from bold reforms in the face of resistance from the right-wing monopolist business lobbyists, who speak for the job exporters, and their “free-trade ideologue” allies.
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    Pelosi: Congress’ Coming ‘Making It In America’ Initiative

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    This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.
    At the Netroots Nation convention today in Las Vegas, Speaker Nancy Pelosi talked about an upcoming Congressional initiative to help restore American manufacturing. The initiative, called “Making It In America” will include a series of bills to be introduced after the summer recess.

    A few days ago Politico wrote about the upcoming initiative,

    Democrats are priming the House floor for a manufacturing agenda they hope will bolster the economy, produce easy bipartisan votes and boost their chances in the midterm elections — at least if the polls they’re using are on target.
    Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) teased the plan — sometimes dubbed “Making It in America” — after a White House meeting with President Barack Obama last week. The agenda appears to be the Democrats’ final pre-election push to clear the deck of jobs-related bills that have been sitting around for months.
    Democrats plan to present the agenda as a means of creating jobs, promoting green manufacturing through tax credits and grants and enhancing national security by rebuilding the domestic manufacturing sector at a time when many Americans are worried about China’s strength, according to aides.

    The Politico story referred to the impact made on members of Congress by a new poll from the Alliance for American Manufacturing. According to the poll,

  • A majority believe the U.S. no longer has the world’s strongest economy—a title they want to regain
  • Voters are anxious about the economy—specifically China debt, spending and loss of manufacturing
  • 86% of voters want Washington to focus on manufacturing, and 63% feel working people who make things are being forgotten while Wall Street and banks get bailouts
  • Two-thirds of voters believe manufacturing is central to our economic strength, and 57% believe manufacturing is more central to our economic strength than high-tech, knowledge or financial service sectors
  • Across all demographics, voters’ economic solutions center on trade enforcement, clean energy, tax credits for U.S. manufacturing and replacing aging infrastructure using American materials, a surprising overlap between Tea Party supporters, independents, non-union households and union households.

    • Wednesday the House passed the first bill of the initiative, H.R. 4380, the U.S. Manufacturing Enhancement Act, to help American manufacturers by temporarily suspending or reducing duties on materials these companies use that are made abroad or opposed by domestic producers.
    California Rep. John Garamendi has introduced three bills to close corporate tax loopholes that reward the off-shoring of jobs and end taxpayer subsidies for foreign-produced clean energy technology, buses, railcars, and ferries.
    Garamendi says “I want to walk into Target and see “Made in America” throughout the store. We can make it in America,”
    At Netroots Nation Speaker Pelosi also said that Congress is looking at addressing the China currency problem, where China is manipulating its currency to give goods made there a huge pricing advantage. She also pointed out that China imposes many other barriers to free trade, including not allowing American companies to bid on government procurement, even when the goods are made in China.
    I will be writing more on this, but it is a breaking story and I want to get the news out.
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    “Re-shoring,” “On-shoring” and “Insourcing” – The Coming New Era Of American Manufacturing

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    This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.
    What will it mean to American businesses if – I should say when – Chinese imports cost as much as they should cost?
    A currency and trade rebalancing is going to happen sooner or later because it has to. We can’t run a trade deficit forever. If something is unsustainable it can’t be sustained. Eventually we have to earn the money to pay off what we are borrowing and the only way to do that is with exports. The first step to that is to stop importing so much and at least make things to sell to ourselves.
    This rebalancing could happen because China lets its currency approach market levels. Or, if China refuses to stop unfairly subsidizing their exports (their currency manipulation is just one piece of that) our government will have to impose tariffs on imports from China. There are other things that could change the current trade imbalance. The only thing that is for sure is that the current situation can’t just continue. We can’t just keep sending factories, supply chains, jobs, and dollars away. It’s a bubble that has to pop. And it will. American business should be planning for this approaching new era of American manufacturing.
    Once the Chinese import bubble pops new phrases will enter the lexicon, so start getting used to them. “Re-shoring,” “on-shoring” and “insourcing” will replace “offshoring” and “outsourcing.”
    A week ago I wrote about a CNBC segment on this,

    For many years we’ve been hearing about outsourcing and offshoring. President Obama has started taking steps to rebalance world trade and the pendulum is about to start swinging the other way. More and more often you’ll be hearing new words: “insourcing,” “on-shoring” and “re-shoring.”
    Watch this CNBC segment from Friday, Made in America Making a Comeback.

    American businesses — are you ready? It’s coming.
    P.S. Here’s a stock tip: machine tools.
    Update and P.S. —
    Re-Shore at the NTMA/PMA Contract Manufacturing Purchasing Fair

    Help bring manufacturing back to the U.S.!
    At last somebody is doing something: the May 12, 2010 NTMA/PMA Purchasing Fair focuses on re-shoring. The $ is down vs. many currencies. JIT and R&D are best supported, and carbon footprint minimized, by local sourcing. The time is right for this effort to succeed.
    Customers bring your off-shored work! Vendors bring your best technical ideas and sharp pencils! Learn More

    Click through!
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    G-20 Standing Up To China, Now It’s Your Turn

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    This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.
    As the manufacturing infrastructure of suppliers, technology knowledge, etc., moves to China, dependence follows. China appears to be ready to answer, “So what are you going to do about it?”
    The world is starting to realize this. Financial Times, yesterday, China reprimanded by G20 leaders

    Five prominent members of the Group of 20 leading economies, including the US and UK, sent a coded rebuke to China on Tuesday against backsliding on economic agreements.
    In a letter to the rest of the G20 that shows frustration at slow progress this year, the leaders warned: “Without co-operative action to make the necessary adjustments to achieve [strong and sustainable growth], the risk of future crises and low growth remain.”

    Reuters says,

    The letter was signed by U.S. President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

    Meanwhile Business Week looks at China, in China: Closing for Business? (turn your sound off before clicking)

    Nearly a decade after China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, many foreign companies say the warm reception they once received has turned frosty. … A new government procurement program known as “indigenous innovation” features rules favoring local firms: It could block sales worth billions of dollars a year. … Beijing has written strict standards for everything from cell phones to cars, often couching them in a way that gives an advantage to domestic producers.

    Summary, China used the promise of access to its huge market to grab control of much of the world’s manufacturing. “You want to sell to us, you have to build your factories here.” Now that they have it they are no longer as interested in sharing. And while they subsidize manufacturing in various ways – including currency manipulation – to lure companies to move factories and jobs to China, they are not letting those companies sell inside China. So the huge trade imbalance continues to grow.
    China pursued an effective industrial policy. Meanwhile, we don’t even have one.
    What are we going to do about that?
    Here is something you can do today: Click here to tell Washington: Tell the truth. China is manipulating its currency and playing by its own set of rules.

    The Treasury Department must report twice a year which countries are practicing unfair trade by artificially lowering the value of their currencies, making their imports cheaper and our exports pricier.
    The next Treasury report on currency manipulation comes on April 15. The Chinese government is spending an unprecedented $30 billion a month buying dollars and selling yuan to keep its currency low and its exports cheap.
    Yet regardless of who is in charge of the White House, the US has yet to follow the law and state the truth.

    To share this:
    Direct Twitter share link (click on this, don’t copy it): http://bit.ly/dAKD4P
    Direct Facebook share link (click on this, don’t copy it): http://bit.ly/clpBmC
    And then, after you have done these, demand that our government formulate and follow a national industrial policy so we can start bringing the jobs back home.
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    Even Chinese Officials Understand — Their Currency Must Rise

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    This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.
    When a policy is just wrong it’s just wrong. I have written about how Chinese CEOs and Chinese economists have been making the case for China to bring its currency up to market rates.
    Even Chinese government officials are making the case for a stronger currency. In a must-read NY Times story, China Officials Wrestle Publicly Over Currency,

    The current drama began on March 6 when the governor of China’s central bank stunned analysts by saying that the bank’s policy of keeping the renminbi at a constant exchange rate against the dollar was a “special” response to the global financial crisis.
    The new description suggested to many economists that the current value of the renminbi was temporary and that the central banker, Zhou Xiaochuan, was preparing the Chinese public for a stronger renminbi.

    Why is all of this discussion about Chinese currency coming to a head now?

    The debate is far from academic. In the coming weeks, the Obama administration faces a series of politically charged deadlines set by Congress to decide whether to continue negotiating with China over currency and trade issues or to take a more confrontational stance and name China a currency manipulator.
    If the administration labels China a currency manipulator, it would face further Congressional pressure to impose punitive tariffs on many Chinese goods.

    Please read the entire NY Time story for its explanation of some of China’s internal tensions over the currency-rate problem. The Commerce Ministry is close to exporters who have been enjoying this manipulated advantage, and fights for their interests. The central bank has accumulated a vast store of foreign currency and would be blamed for the value drop of this pile of foreign cash as their own currency gets stronger. But the pile also means that the central bank cannot easily raise interest rates to fight rising inflation. Because of this inflation companies are starting to import and stockpile commodities. Etc. It’s a tense mess with the highest of stakes. (Yes, I feel the excitement of a thriller when I read about economics. My wife rolls her eyes.)
    The Chinese government is trying to just manage all of these market forces instead of letting them operate as markets. The resulting imbalances are causing tremendous pressures – and bubbles – to build up both inside and outside of China. If China won’t resolve this as the danger to the world’s economy grows, the rest of the world must step in. On April 15 President Obama has an opportunity to start restoring balance to the world’s economy by declaring China a currency manipulator and taking steps designed to force them into balance with the rest of the world. Think of it as an intervention for their own good.
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