judd's blog

America the world's leader in technological innovation? Think again. According to a recent corporate survey, China's high-tech industry is on track to eclipse good old Silicon Valley by 2016. Yikes! More reason why Uncle Sam needs to get his act together.

Happy Wednesday, Chicago! The windy city is getting a manufacturing institute, courtesy of the University of Illinois, which is increasing its stake in the local economy. Need a job? Ever thought of the American rust belt? It's coming back!

Everyone and their uncle may be seeking to head the World Trade Organization but that doesn't mean they're going to gain anything other than money and prestige from leading an entity that hasn't opened a market since 2001. Why? Because the WTO has it all wrong on how to do free trade.

The unions are coming! The unions are coming! To China. Or so Foxconn would like to have us believe. Maybe they're taking a page from Apple's crisis communication playbook or just spewing idle chatter signifying nothing?

Candidate Obama spent hundreds of millions of dollars slamming Mitt Romney for outsourcing American jobs. But President Obama is pushing another so-called ‘trade’ deal that will close more American plants and send more American jobs overseas.

With a new congressional session under day, New York's junior senator has thrown legislation into the hopper designed to encourage U.S. manufacturers to keep jobs in the United States or bring them back from overseas. A new year, new hope for American workers? Think happy thoughts. 

If you're one of the few and proud women who attend manufacturing conferences, you never have to wait in line outside the women's bathroom because the fairer sex is few and far between. In a society where women are more likely than men to go to college, it's a crying shame that more aren't trying to break into the mostly-boys-club manufacturing industry and missed opportunity for the sector to tap into a growing well of talent. 

Who says you can't make your fortune on floor mats? Just ask Dave MacNeil, the man behind the Illinois-based WeatherTech, who parlayed an obsession with cars and Made- in-America spirit into an $80-million-a-year business. 

Linus, of Peanuts fame, could never part with his beloved blue blanket. Just imagine if it were made in China? It would have been reduced to rags well before he had to develop an attachment with it.  A fairly new company in Massachusetts wants to ensure that all American children's blankies stand the test of time -- Made in America. 

President Obama's recent inaugural address hit a lot high notes by focusing attention on the need for all of society's sectors to unite in the age of globalization to ensure a brighter future for America but failed to mention how much easier that would be with a vibrant dynamic economy, according to American Jobs Alliance board member Clyde Prestowitz.