Economy

Designing or selecting the basic corrugated shipping case is typically considered to be a job for marketers and engineers. While the marketing department concerns itself with the appearance and utility of the consumer package and the engineering group typically focuses on cost effective packaging, neither group usually considers logistics or supply chain issues adequately. As […]

After four years of stasis on the trade front, the new post-election environment is a welcome change. Removing barriers to trade—in both directions—is essential to sustained economic recovery and long-term growth.

Manufacturing employment has fallen by one-third over the past decade. Some Members of Congress contend that foreign trade has allowed American employers to offshore these jobs. In fact, technology has driven down manufacturing employment and computers have made manufacturers more productive by automating many routine tasks. American manufacturers now employ fewer workers to produce more […]

A recent "Street Journal" headline screamed: “Americans Sour on Trade.” And why shouldn’t they? After all, the public is routinely bombarded with misleading or simplistic trade coverage that too often relies on cliché, innuendo and regurgitated conventional wisdom: it’s Team America versus the world. Without the war metaphor, trade is just a peaceful, mutually...

Today’s post-recessionary economic realities combined with dynamic global trends are impacting virtually every aspect of our lives—and certainly the profitability of our businesses. Unless organizations understand the following five realities and adapt, succeeding in the years ahead will be extremely difficult.

As I write this commentary, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down. But this isn’t really about the stock market; it’s about three recent news items. First, a special session that prevented our nation’s leaders from their August recess added another $26 billion to government spending. Second, the Federal Reserve formally announced its decision to […]

What had been a recurring story line buried in the business section has now burst onto the front page: “Economic growth slowed by trade gap,” the Washington Post reports. This headline sets the stage for a story long on generalizations: “A widening U.S. trade deficit has become a substantial drag on economic growth as the...

Surprising to many, the United States manufacturing sector is not being hollowed out. With the exception of the recent recession when all U.S. industries experienced poor economic growth, U.S. manufacturing has been breaking its own record, year after year, with respect to output, value-added, profits, returns on investment, exports, and imports, says Dan Ikenson, associate...

China’s booming economic growth continues to attract huge flows of foreign investment. And the World Expo in Shanghai is drawing still more attention. As a result of this and other factors, the economy grew a robust 11.9 percent in the first quarter of 2010, on top of 8.7 percent growth in 2009. During this same […]

President Obama’s goal of creating American jobs has thrust the Chinese currency onto center stage in Washington, where an undervalued renminbi is blamed for the trade deficit with China, and in turn, the deficit is blamed for U.S. job losses. Growing acceptance of that sequence of fallacies threatens our economy, as Congress considers restrictions on...

<p>Many American business people are experiencing the most challenging economic conditions they have ever incurred. In turn, every effort is focused on getting the business moving again, returning to profitability, being creative and working longer hours. So why bother with human resource development at this crucial time? Because your workforce is the differentiator between you [&hellip;]</p>

As policymakers respond to the global recession, they should remember that the unprecedented global economic growth experienced in recent decades owes much to the removal of political and economic barriers to trade and investment. During that time, a division of labor on a truly global scale has emerged, presenting opportunities for specialization, collaboration, and exchange [&hellip;]

For decades, America’s unmatched economic achievements have depended primarily on U.S. creativity, innovativeness and entrepreneurialism. With 231,588 American utility patent applications filed just in 2008, representing 51 percent of world patents filed that year, these vital characteristics appear to be alive and well. This, no doubt, will result in fantastic new technologically-advanced products and services...

During the past few years, America has grown increasingly averse to trade. This trend is the product of myths perpetuated by campaigning politicians, captured policymakers, TV charlatans, and woefully ill-informed newspaper columnists...

China’s unexpectedly strong economic rebound may appear miraculous. In reality, it’s derived from a combination of that government’s huge economic stimulus package and increasingly strong domestic consumer demand. Our firm, InterChina Consulting, views Chinese consumer spending as an increasingly important contributor to the Middle Kingdom’s long-term economic growth. It also is offsetting continued weakness in [&hellip;]

President Barack Obama is neither a committed free-trader nor a hard core protectionist. But his continuing failure to commit to a pro-trade agenda amounts to de facto protectionism and subverts his economic and foreign policy objectives. No Clear Signal Reacting recently to a provision in the climate change bill that would impose trade penalties against [&hellip;]

The Margaret Thatcher-Ronald Reagan economic model of free market capitalism is under attack. The system, which was responsible for jumpstarting this era of globalization, created the greatest economic growth the world has ever seen. It empowered people to achieve their dreams and unleashed their innovative and creative abilities that paved the way for tremendous gains...

Small business is the backbone of the U.S. economy. It’s also key to our economic recovery. Unfortunately, we don’t hear much about the large role small business plays in this country’s exporting efforts. Laying Out the Facts On June 30th, Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and [&hellip;]

The global economic crisis may have left many companies in China and elsewhere struggling to shore up their bottom lines, but this has not ruined their appetite for mergers and acquisitions (M&amp;As). M&amp;As To Remain Strong in 2009 China had a record $164.3 billion M&amp;A deals announced in 2008, up 18 percent from a year [&hellip;]

There is reason for grave concern about the direction of U.S. trade policy. The bipartisan, pro-trade consensus, which served U.S. economic and diplomatic interests so well for so long, collapsed during the final two years of the Bush administration. Congressional skeptics, who helped derail the U.S. trade agenda, have increased their ranks in the new [&hellip;]