By Pete Engardio
Is Washington finally getting serious about doing something to shore up America’s flagging global competitiveness in manufacturing? There are certainly some signs in recent moves by President Obama.
The president has promised to listen to the needs of business more carefully and declared that America must “out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.” He has visited factories in the hard-hit Midwest and appointed General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt to head a new jobs panel. And Wednesday, President Obama unveiled an initiative to increase training of skilled manufacturing workers. But do these moves add up to a manufacturing policy? Yes and no.
On one hand, Obama’s administration has been one of the most active in recent years when it comes to intervening to support industries seen as strategically important for America’s industrial future.
The rescues of General Motors and Chrysler were the most prominent examples. The administration also pumped $2.4 billion in loans and grants into dozens of factories involved in production of next-generation lithium-ion batteries for cars, an important new industry that once seemed destined to take place entirely in Asia. Washington gave similar subsidies to developers of innovative solar-power modules. And Congress has approved tax credits for building and
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