judd's blog

Back in the mid-1990s, electronics technician Roger Simmermaker had a difficult time finding Made in America products, including clothing, so he created a guide entitled "How Americans Can Buy American" to find them. Nowadays, it's not nearly as difficult. What a difference a few decades and greater demand will make.

The Wall Streeters -- so-called Masters of the Universe -- are exactly the last Americans we should be seeking economic advice from. But that doesn't stop The New York Times from soliciting the viewpoint of one disgraced Wall Streeter and "car czar" on what ails our nation's financial situation and keeps the majority of our nation's citizens down.

A recent spate of suicides at its Zhengzhou factory has got the People's Republic of Foxconn, supplier to Apple and other high-tech manufacturers, to thinking about relaxing its strict workers' rules. But the company doesn't want lower management and the workers, themselves, to know. Sounds like a publicity stunt. Cesar Chavez is rolling over in his grave.

Forget about eroding U.S. infrastructure, educational decline, and weak economic activity. Whether most Americans think so or not, the United States continues to reign supreme as the world's largest economy, in the face of soaring growth in India and China. The question is do we really want a second American Century? American Jobs Board member Clyde Prestowitz says let Asia take that overrated honor.

The Made in USA label may be the rage worldwide. But some of our nation's export targets are less than thrilled about the way Uncle Sam ensures that the products being shipped from America are actually made within U.S. borders, tempting some to consider blocking them altogether. Yikes.

Ever wondered what our nation's greatest export, a product that's completely made in the USA, is? We'll give you a few hints -- it's green and white and has Benjamin Franklin on it. It has also been up for a redesign for the past few years.

Japanese rice farmers, understandably a little tense about their country's entry into the evolving Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations, have taken their dissent to Washington, D.C., where they're arguing that Japan's inclusion is likely to bring the entire pact down.

India's outsourcing industry is headed for rough sailing, if proposed U.S. immigration reform legislation becomes law. The days of sending guest workers to America to work for U.S. companies at vastly lower wages than their U.S. counterparts appear to be on their way out.  At least there's something the U.S. Congress can agree upon. Not so do-nothing after all but still too early to tell, however.  

Unlike California, where Chinese government-backed firms able to low-ball the competition win major state infrastructure projects such as the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge reconstruction, Maryland wants to make sure all state-subsidized construction has the Made-In-America seal.

Remember Ross Perot's NAFTA debate with Al Gore? It was the Thrilla in Manila, the Rumble in the Jungle, the wild thing on Larry King.  Get ready for the sequel - Pat Buchanan goes mano a mano with Joe Biden over the TransPacific Partnership and the New World Order! Watch the video.