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New book from MTN editor: 'Mfg A Better Future For America'.

Article Excerpt
The United States will not experience a robust economic recovery until its political leadership decides that the country needs to make the products Americans are currently consuming. That is the message from a new book written by Manufacturing & Technology News editor Richard McCormack and eight other authors who investigated the reasons for America's economic trouble and the importance of manufacturing, trade policy reform, training and research to the country's turnaround.

Until there is a shift in thinking away from the idea that manufacturing is not necessary for an advanced economy, the United States will not create enough wealth to survive as a "service" or knowledge economy, the book argues. "An increase in consumer demand will not put Americans back to work," writes McCormack. "Any additional consumer spending will only help workers making products overseas." Unfortunately, it is a lesson that has been lost not only on the previous administrations, but on the current one as well. Those who are involved in domestic manufacturing issues in Washington are in the unenviable position of having to "educate" another group of policymakers.

A number of factors put the country into its current predicament, argue the authors of the book, entitled Manufacturing a Better Future for America. Clyde Prestowitz, president of the Economic Strategy Institute, describes the history of American trade policy. For well over the first 100 years of the nation, import tariffs not only...