US Opinion and Commentary

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Manufacturing’s Greatest Days Lie Ahead

Posted December 13th, 2016 at 12:25 pm (UTC-4)
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Team Trump’s promotion of domestic energy will yield significant economic dividends…it will stimulate economic activity in the U.S. and will help revive job creation in the energy sector, both for workers employed directly in oil and gas drilling and extraction activities as well as increased employment in the support activities for oil and gas operations.

America’s Middle Class Battlelines

Posted October 12th, 2016 at 4:30 pm (UTC-4)
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For most Americans, a middle class life looks like this: Home ownership; a yearly vacation; college for your kids; a secure, debt free retirement.
That’s what’s been spun as the “American Dream.” And, according to the political rhetoric, trying to achieve it is a nightmare.
The Pew Research Center recently reported the share of middle class households have dropped in 9 out of 10 metropolitan areas. Some of that erosion is due to income growth. But more of the drop can be attributed to income declines.
Presidential nominees Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are offering both reasons and remedies for the middle class slippage. But can a manufacturing jobs plan, or an investment or middle class tax cut close the fissures that seem to be splintering American society?

Loving Our Stuff, but Hating the People Who Sell It to Us

Posted March 21st, 2016 at 12:17 pm (UTC-4)
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The populist Right’s descent into Trumpism has been accompanied by another chorus of that great daft stupid hymn of American political economy: “We Don’t Make Things Here Anymore.” That is completely untrue, of course…