judd's blog

Don't believe what you've been reading in the mainstream press. Manufacturing is back and here to stay. The skeptics have missed a major piece of the puzzle,  according to American Jobs Alliance board member Clyde Prestowitz.

Over the past few decades, China has evolved into the assembly line to the world. That may not be the case in the coming years, with rising labor and transporation costs making it as costly or more as manufacturing in the good ole USA, according to a recent study.

Think getting old is a drag now? Just wait until today's under-35 crowd gets to "retirement" age. The liberalization of trade over the past 40 years appears to be taking a more pronounced toll on the younger generations. Will America be the United States of Tent Cities 50 years from now?

More liberalized trade furthered through the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership's evolving free trade pact and other policies is likely to rob the world's people of their right to take charge of and develop their own local food systems, making them much more dependent on imports -- mostly the products of multinational corporations. The result? Richer corporations and fatter people, including Americans. So much for First Lady Michelle Obama's "Healthy Living" campaign.

The White House's free trade efforts, including forging deals across the Atlantic and Pacific, are doing little to help the American worker and our nation's domestic economy as a whole. If anything, the Obama administration exacerbating things by not taking on its trade partners' less-than-transparent behavior, especially on the monetary front.

Is the media smoking something when it comes to reporting about the nation's trade deficit with China? The folks at the economics blog Seeking Alpha seem to think so, given the latest round of coverage over an allegedly shrinking gap.

If you're in the market for the most Made In America auto brand, look no further than Detroit -- specifically -- good old General Motors. The carmaker recently ranked at the top of a list of 253 cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the United States by the extent to which they are manufactured here.

Trans-Pacific Partnership foes have begun to invoke the past in their efforts to dash support of a free trade agreement on the basis that it at the very least violates Internet users' rights, among other things. The evolving TPP free trade treaty's intellectual property provisions threatens to bring back debate over failed international efforts to "beef up" IP standards, forcing service providers to police the web.  

With baseball season upon us, it's time for America to focus on another proud American tradition -- support for U.S. manufacturing, concludes one prominent House Democrat. Renewed attention is required if the nation hopes to surmount its current economic challenges.

Is the manufacturing renaissance just a fantasy? One business publication seems to believe so, arguing that the nation's manufacturers have made little progress, just trying to play catch-up for a decade of dramatic reversal.