U.S.

Last week, President-elect Trump card his distaste for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and made withdrawal of the United States from the agreement a “Day One” priority. Although the move would hearten many of Trump’s supporters, history would judge it as folly — with a capital “F.”

Media and social media have been percolating – mostly with invective – over President-elect Trump’s “deal” to keep Carrier and its 1,000 jobs from moving to Mexico. I am among the many critics of this ad hoc, interventionist approach to retaining or attracting companies to perform value-added, job-creating activities in the United States.

There has been a shift in our culture and how we perceive today’s job seekers. Two groups in particular are being mischaracterized: millennials and trade/vocational school students. It’s not clear how this started, but many people hold a low opinion of millennials. Forbes notes that the oldest millennials, born in 1981 according to Pew Research...

As an entrepreneur, nothing gives me more gratification than speaking to colleges and business schools about pursuing a career in entrepreneurship, where innovation is the coin of the realm. I have built several businesses, so I must have some kind of an entrepreneurial gene that spurs my dedication to creating new opportunities and the American...

The UK’s vote to leave the European Union (Brexit) has taken the world by surprise. There has been much debate about what it means, if anything, to America. Whatever the outcome, which will not be known for years, it shouldn’t undermine America’s resolve to grow exports and expand our global leadership.

What world-changing behemoth that begins with the letter “C” presents the greatest threat to U.S. commercial and strategic interests in the Asia-Pacific region? Wrong. Even in the wake of this week’s potentially provocative tribunal ruling against Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, the greatest threat remains Congress, not China.

Barack Obama assumed office promising to restore some of the U.S. foreign policy credibility notoriously squandered by his predecessor. But if Congress doesn’t ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement before Christmas, the president will leave office with American commercial and strategic positions weakened in the Asia-Pacific and U.S. credibility further diminished globally. The specter of […]

The oil industry, and perhaps the global economy, is standing at a crossroads. Down one path, the storm is over — and it has been a major storm. Tens of thousands of jobs lost, billions of dollars in capital evaporated, and the promise of energy independence broken. Yet down this path is the promise of […]

The U.S. Labor Department announced job growth of 215,000 for March in line with expectations. Given a working-age population of over 200 million, it doesn’t seem to be a significant number of jobs. But 215,000 new jobs are the net increase of many moving parts. Annually, the U.S. creates a little less than 13 million […]

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Americans have a love-hate relationship with international trade. Every day we enjoy its fruits, which include better and more affordable products; access to a larger pool of customers, suppliers and capital; and greater employment and business opportunities with foreign companies operating in the United States. Yet many of us cheer when politicians take to the […]

Years ago, you could pretty much identify the union dominated states, and understood the role they played in turning out votes for Democratic candidates. With West Virginia’s vote to become a right-to-work state, there are now more states embracing right-to-work (26) than those that remain dominated by unions.

It’s a presidential election year so the quadrennially-maligned U.S. trade deficit is taking its lumps. Donald Trump says the trade deficit means the United States is losing at trade, and it’s losing because U.S. trade negotiators aren’t smart enough. Bernie Sanders believes the trade deficit deprives the economy of production and good jobs. Meanwhile, some […]

In the presidential debates and on the campaign trail, U.S. trade policy has taken a beating. Trump would slap a 45 percent tax on all imports from China. Sanders claims that trade agreements have been “a disaster for the American worker.” Cruz perpetuates the myth that Congress has ceded its authority on trade to President […]

In a rare instance of bi-partisan cooperation, Democrats and Republicans voted to lift the ban on crude oil exports on December 18, 2015 as part of a budget deal for 2016. At present, U.S exporters are allowed to sell oil to Canada, Switzerland, and Spain, with smaller amounts (less than a million barrels annually) to […]

Two months after negotiators reached a deal six years in the making, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is in trouble. Prospects for ratification of this deal by this Congress appear to be somewhere between questionable and doubtful. That could change in the months ahead, but if the TPP spills over to the next Congress and administration — […]

<p>I just gave the keynote address at a conference for high school administrators and teachers of career academies and vocational schools on Long Island, New York. It’s one I particularly enjoyed because I have been an enthusiastic advocate for technical and career schools for many years as they quickly and affordably prepare students for careers [&hellip;]</p>

American voters face a dizzying array of 2016 presidential candidates — 21 at last count. Their positions on economic issues likely will command voters’ greatest interest. Historically, unless the country is at war, foreign policy has not been an issue of great interest during presidential elections. But this time may be different as two critical [&hellip;]

On July 20, Cuba formally reopened its embassy in Washington for the first time in 54 years, a step that was reciprocated by the U.S. in mid-August. However, it will be some time yet before relations are fully normalized. The Republican-dominated U.S. Congress has made clear that it will not approve the lifting of the [&hellip;]

For baffling reasons, Russia is perceived as a world power that rivals America. Look beneath the veneer of Putin’s bluster and you’ll find a country in deep financial distress that is on the verge of economic collapse. The culprit is oil. The price of a barrel of oil has been cut roughly in half since...