Backdrop for Obama’s announcement of fuel-efficiency grants? A couple of foreign-built trucks
Jason Reed / ReutersIn August, President Obama announced, at this event in Indiana, new funds to support the building of vehicles like the one behind him — which was manufactured in England.
F. Brinley BrutonReporter
Photographs of President Barack Obama run on a constant loop in [...]
By MIRIAM JORDAN
A coveted visa program that feeds skilled workers to top-tier U.S. technology companies and universities is on track to leave thousands of spots unfilled for the first time since 2003, a sign of how the weak economy has eroded employment even among highly trained professionals.
The program, known as H-1B, has been a [...]
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http://mfgcrunch.ning.com/profiles/blogs/returning-to-america-the
Here’s a great blog post summary from evolvingexcellence.com reviewing a Deloitte article that debates the repatriation of manufacturing work back to the US. Salient points include that Deloitte, a consultant, is paid to look for an report change, and that the gap in costs between manufacturing in the US and offshore has shrunk [...]
LESLEY CLARK
The Miami Herald
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers from Florida and Louisiana Thursday pressed new Consumer Product Safety Commission chairman Inez Tenenbaum for answers to the Chinese drywall problem plaguing thousands of homeowners in their states.
Tenenbaum – who took over the agency in June – pledged to lawmakers that the agency will “vigorously pursue its investigation” [...]
Michael Mandel
This morning the BLS released its “International Comparisons of Manufacturing Productivity and Unit Labor Cost Trends, 2008”. And guess what? According to the BLS, the U.S. manufacturing sector had the fastest productivity growth in the world in 2008—1.2%, tied with South Korea. Meanwhile, Japan, Canada, Germany, France and Japan all had manufacturing productivity [...]
By Vivek Wadhwa
The list of challengers to U.S. tech supremacy may be getting longer. Many pundits say the greatest threats to the nation’s status as a tech superpower are China and India. Those people would do well to look south.
Aside from notable exceptions such as Venezuela, South America is a growth dynamo with [...]
By MAX COLCHESTER And CHRISTINA PASSARIELLO
PARIS—France’s specialized embroiderers, seamstresses, tailors and hatmakers—once the backbone of a thriving fashion business—are today among the hardest-hit victims of the global slowdown in luxury-goods sales. As fashion houses cancel orders and cut costs, these small businesses are now turning to the French government for help.
On Monday, France’s Prime [...]
A tiny car company backed by former Vice President Al Gore has just gotten a $529 million U.S. government loan to help build a hybrid sports car in Finland that will sell for about $89,000.