Harry E. Figgie Jr.

Wired has a story today on “The Birth of a U.S. Win Power Manufacturing Industry.” The story cites a World Resources Institute paper called “It Should Be A Breeze: Harnessing the Potential of Open Trade and Investment Flows in the Wind Energy Industry,” which claims that the American wind power industry prefers sourcing domestically because [...]

Play the video above to see the President’s remarks upon signing the Manufacturing Enhancement Act of 2010. – The Editors

CBS News has an article today on the shortage of skilled labor in the American economy, one factor that has prevented firms from hiring more workers. And she’s not alone. The government says there are 227,000 open manufacturing jobs, more than double the number a year ago. One hundred eighty-three thousand have been created since [...]

Here is a link to the Make it in America section of the House Majority Leader’s website. – The Editors

Institute for America’s Future President Robert Borosage writes that the Democrats will take further steps to support U.S. manufacturing in September. He says that When they return in September, the Democratic majority plans to push a legislative agenda that takes the first steps toward reviving U.S. manufacturing. Specific elements are still being determined but are [...]

Yesterday, we posted a short article from the Financial Times by Jagdish Bhagwati that argued against emphasizing the role of manufacturing in the recovery. Today we post a response to that article by Ken Jarboe at The Intangible Economy. Jarboe writes that boosting manufacturing also means boosting services, both direct manufacturing-related services and indirect services. [...]

New America Foundation/Smart Globalization Initiative Chairman Leo Hindery, Jr. explains that the 20+ million new jobs we need will not come exclusively from small businesses, despite popular belief. Here is a snippet from Hindery’s article: Twenty-two million new jobs, which is what we need for our workforce to be “fully employed” – i.e., no more [...]

Jagdish Bhagwati, writing in today’s Financial Times, says that the United States is placing too much emphasis on manufacturing. He argues that manufacturing is no more capable of producing innovation than the service and agricultural sectors. He says: Underlying the current prejudice is the unwarranted presumption that manufacturing industries are technically more innovative than both [...]

Jerry Brown, the Democratic candidate for governor in California, released a jobs plan that includes a ten-year plan to extend tax credits to promote green manufacturing. The plan can be read on Brown’s website, here. Here is a section of the Los Angeles’ Times analysis of the plan: The bulk of the document and the [...]

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers is calling on Congress to do more to add jobs to the manufacturing sector. Here is a snippet from the press release: “Our economy is stuck at 9.5 percent unemployment, and Congress should be pulling out the stops to put America’s middle class back to work in the manufacturing industry,” [...]