Category: Making it in America

Increasingly people are asking about our country’s plan for restoring and reinventing the economy. And that means thinking about manufacturing – the root of economic power. How will we revive American manufacturing and being back the good-paying jobs manufacturing creates? Just look at the growth of China, Korea and other countries that have been following…

A post by Leo Gerard and Scott N. Paul Our nation faces rising unemployment, staggering debts, shrinking trade, and no sense of when (and if) a real recovery — one that reaches Main Street and working families — will take hold. As the federal government responds to these concerns, and especially since President Obama was…

Washington\’s special genius is for gridlock. As we\’re seeing in the health care debate, the entire system is designed to frustrate action — even when Democrats have a popular president, 60 votes in the Senate and a large majority in the House. Moneyed interests trump party loyalty. Partisan politics trumps national purpose. Congressional rules and…

President Obama will get an opportunity in the coming weeks to show American workers that he has the mettle to get tough with China when that country flouts the basic principles of fair trade, and it will be on an issue in which he does not have the luxury of ambiguity. Last week the International…

There they go again. Those running the show at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are attacking again the Buy American provision in the economic stimulus package. Ignoring, once more, that Buy American makes fundamental economic sense by ensuring at least some of our taxpayer bailout money is invested in American-made productions, the Chamber is siding…

A group of tire importers that should be competitors banded together recently to ally themselves with China in a trade case. Doesn\’t sound like they\’re working for the interests of the United States, does it? No, they\’re not. They\’re collaborating with China against American manufacturing in general and American tire workers, represented by the United…

Clyde Prestowitz is absolutely right that the United States needs a cohesive, forward-looking national industrial policy. And furthermore, he is correct in pointing out the “policies of China, Japan, Korea and others to undervalue their currencies.” Such mercantilistic trade practices are an excellent reminder that other major economic powers already maintain their own inwardly focused…

I pledge that soon I will buy a new, fuel-efficient car—built in America by United Auto Workers members. I\’m asking YOU to take this pledge with me and get others to do so, too. If enough Americans take this pledge—and pass it on—we can revive our country\’s auto and manufacturing industries. And we can give…

The proposition General Motors has presented to the United Auto Workers and American taxpayers in its latest restructuring plan is simple: You must pay for your own execution. GM, which already took $15.4 billion in bailout money, wants another $11.6 billion and is offering in return this deal: It will close 16 of its American…

Assembly-line workers and Michigan communities aren’t the only ones with a stake in a strong U.S. auto manufacturing industry. More than 7.2 million paychecks are tied to U.S. autos, ranging from supply manufacturing to health care, education, service, retail and other jobs. Even individuals outside the auto industry benefit in communities where middle-class auto and…