-By Paul McDougall, Information Week (August 9, 2010)
Email Paul at pmcdougall@techweb.com
The U.S. Agency for International Development will contribute from $10 million to $36 million to train workers, including 3,000 IT specialists, in Sri Lanka.
The federal agency will partner with private outsources in that country to train the workers. This program is drawing fire from critics.
Bloomberg reports the trade deficit widened in June by a record $7.9 billion as imports rose and shipments abroad declined. It is easy to say that this is nothing new but when you put it into practical terms like “the U.S. is buying more than it is selling” it becomes obvious we have to give up something to keep supporting our habit of buying cheap overseas products and oil to run our cars. So what are we giving up? Some would say we can just keep borrowing and sometime in the future when things are better we can just pay it back. Well I think we have already done this and things are not getting better.
Others have said that someday the foreign producers will have to raise their prices because their citizens will become more like us and want big cars and big houses. When they raise their prices the U.S. will be more competitive and people will start buying products made in the U.S. and we will be able to export more. Sorry to put this idea to rest. It is not happening fast enough. The U.S. will be bankrupt first and we will not have the capital to retool and be competitive. We are losing our capital and our manufacturing skill set along with our factories. The young people coming up today are not being trained in machine shops in the high schools of the past. Wood working shops are gone too. Our children are getting trained on how to work in a retail sales job making one fourth of the salary of a manufacturing worker in the ’80s.
So every time you see the trade deficit getting larger you can start thinking about what the U.S. is giving up. We suggest you start asking the stores you shop in if they have products made in the U.S.A. If they do not have them then search the Internet and find a product Made in U.S.A. If you still cannot find a U.S.A. made product then contact us and we will help you find a product Made in the U.S.A. Do your part to cut the trade deficit and keep the money in the hands of your fellow citizens. Quit destroying your local and regional economy by buying products made outside the U.S.A.
By Doug Palmer Reuters
WASHINGTON, July 28 (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers moved closer on Wednesday to creating a commission to find ways to cut the huge trade deficit with China and other countries, while also pushing a strategy to promote U.S. manufacturing.
The House of Representatives passed the bill on the commission as part of a “Make it in America” agenda promoted by Democrats before November’s congressional elections to address voters’ concerns about persistently high U.S. unemployment.
“Make it in America is not just a slogan. It is an objective to make that a reality,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters after the vote.
* House lawmakers also call for national manufacturing strategy Read full story at Reuters
Denver Business Journal – by Mark Harden
The Denver metro area has lost 27,300 manufacturing jobs over the last decade, shedding nearly a third of its manufacturing employment, according to an analysis of new federal employment data.
Between May 2000 and May 2010, the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield area’s manufacturing payrolls fell from 86,500 to 59,000, a 31.56 percent decline, the analysis concludes. Read full story..
Portland Business Journal – by Robert Goldfield Special sections editor
The Portland area has lost 38,000 manufacturing jobs in the past 10 years, according to an analysis of the latest federal data.
In May, Portland had 104,500 manufacturing jobs, down from 142,500 in May 2000, according to an analysis by Buffalo Business First, a sister publication. That’s a 26.7 percent drop. Only 24 other U.S. metro areas have lost more manufacturing jobs than Seattle over the past 10 years. Read full story…
By Andy Grove – Jul 1, 2010
Bloomberg Opinion
Clearly, the great Silicon Valley innovation machine hasn’t been creating many jobs of late — unless you are counting Asia, where American technology companies have been adding jobs like mad for years. The underlying problem isn’t simply lower Asian costs. It’s our own misplaced faith in the power of startups to create U.S. jobs. Read more…
New report provides blueprint for building domestic wind energy component supply chain
By: Adrian Paz
http://www.eolicenergynews.org/?p=2935
According to a report released today by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), BlueGreen Alliance and the United Steelworkers, the U.S. wind industry can create tens of thousands of additional jobs manufacturing wind turbines and components if the U.S. passes long-term policies that create a stable market for the domestic wind energy supply chain.
By Ralph Gomory
In the United States, innovation has become almost synonymous with economic competitiveness. Even more remarkable it is argued that the country’s economic salvation can only be through innovation. We hear that because of low Asian wages the United States must innovate because it can’t really compete in anything else. Inventive Americans will do the R&D and let the rest of the world, usually China, do the dull work of actually making things. Or Americans will do programming design but let the rest of the world, usually India, do low-level programming. This is a totally mistaken belief and one that, if accepted, will consign this nation to second- or third-class status. Read more..
As part of a long-term strategic initiative, construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc. has undertaken a study that could lead to a new hydraulic excavator facility being built in the United States, as part of the growing trend toward onshoring—bringing production work back to the United States to reduce global supply chain management costs. Read entire article
Washington Post Foreign Service
By Howard Schneider
The loss of manufacturing jobs is central to a debate Geithner is going to have to referee April 15, when he is to rule on whether China’s policy of pegging the value of its renminbi to the dollar amounts to currency manipulation. The renminbi is estimated to be undervalued by anywhere from 25 to 40 percent, giving Chinese goods an advantage in global markets — and leading to accusations that the policy is costing U.S. jobs at a time when unemployment is stubbornly hovering around 10 percent.
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We believe in supporting companies that manufacture products made in the U.S.A. We are not opposed to fair and balanced trade but we want to help U.S. workers keep their jobs.
