The ever-geeky FiveThirtyEight gives us a wonderful rundown of what's happening with manufacturing in the US. It seems US manufacturing is actually increasing, but jobs are disappearing due to advances in productivity. I can definitely buy this, given the insane level of automation and technology integration many industries are working with.
Also, he concludes with some suggestions about what should be done to ensure competitiveness (including things like floating the yuan), but one of the more interesting ideas is this:
Secondly, there have been calls for a US industrial policy -- that is, for Washington to essentially "pick winners and losers" by promoting some industries that they feel have a high probability of success. Asian countries have been doing this for years with remarkable success and it is a policy which we clearly need to copy. I'm a big promoter of nano-technology, alternative energy and stem cell research, but those are just my choices. There are plenty others out there that would also make sense.
Maybe Washington is listening?
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