judd's blog

Are China's days of world trade domination waning with its increasing dependence on imported energy? The Chinese language 21st Century Business Herald seems to think so. Who stands to gain? The United States, of course, which has seen its oil imports fall to levels not seen for 20 years.

Manufacturing is not the sexiest industry to work in but it certainly pays its workers better than most industries, a recent Commerce Department study concludes. After all, we can't all grow up to be famous rappers, fashion designers and professional athletes. We've got an economy to run.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership's evolving free trade agreement smacks of 20th Century protectionism with recent efforts by the Obama administration to quell Japanese concern about entering the TPP fray. Mr. President, with all due respect, either do it right or go home.

Americans need to change their mentality if they want U.S. manufacturing to regain its former glory. Sure, it’s great that the industrial sector is making a comeback but the nation as a whole, needs to kick the borrow-and spend habit and adopt more of an earn-and-produce philosophy to help manufacturers ultimately succeed, according to a new U.S. Business and Industry Council report.

It's bad enough that the North American Free Trade Treaty didn't live up to its hype with everyday Americans. The much-heralded agreement also appears to be helping drive up drug violence in Mexico and beyond, according to a prominent Honduran journalist.

Back in the early 1990s, much was made of the evolving North American Free Trade Agreement. Then-President Bill Clinton heralded it as an “opportunity to remake the world” and bring about global peace. We know how that worked out -- one terrorist attack on U.S. soil and two wars in the Middle East later.

Advanced technology and cheaper energy are helping resurrect the nation's Rust Belt back from the dead, returning manufacturing jobs to states walloped by the 2008 recession. Let's hope we can keep it up and get back to pre-downturn levels not establish a "new normal."

Just a day after a visit to the United Kingdom, newly-minted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pressed the flesh with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to garner support for a new free-trade treaty in the Atlantic sphere. No surprise that he got overwhelming support.

President Barack Obama's plans to form wide-reaching trade partnerships in both the Atlantic and Pacific spheres reeks of a globalist agenda that would threaten the sovereignty of the United States. 

Japan agrees to take first steps toward entering into the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks. The gingerly-worded agreement, which arose after a meeting with President Barack Obama gives recently elected Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a degree of political cover from his nation's farmers and automakers.