Reposted from the Huffington Post ***** A National Network for Manufacturing Innovation? Ian Fletcher  |  May 2, 2012  |  Huffington Post It’s no secret American manufacturing is in crisis, and that its problems form a significant component of our present economic mess. I’ve written before about how the Obama administration may (may!)…

Reposted from the Huffington Post ***** Is Obama Getting Serious About Manufacturing? Maybe. Ian Fletcher  |  April 23, 2012  |  Huffington Post America has been waiting a long time for the Obama administration to get serious about the problems of our manufacturing sector. Finally, there has been a small sign…

Rick Santorum seems to be (if the bloom isn’t off by the time this article comes out) the latest anybody-but-Romney Flavor of the Week, so it’s work taking a look at his economic ideas. I know, I know: he’s got some interesting, er, cultural baggage. But I’ll leave that to…

Reposted from the Huffington Post ***** As Jobs Go Global, U.S. Workers Pay Ian Fletcher  |  February 3, 2012  |  Huffington Post It’s no secret the pot is boiling a bit again with respect to America’s trade-induced economic problems. Or, more properly, free-trade induced, as neither I nor any other…

If there’s one thing everyone in America knows, it’s that free-market economics is true and free markets are best. After all, we’re not communists, are we? They starved and lost the Cold War because they believed otherwise. And their watered-down European cousins the socialists? More of the same, only less…

Anyone who’s still in a state of denial about the thesis implied by the title of this article can stop reading right here.  I’ll just assume it’s obvious enough that we can take it as a given.  My intention here is neither to bemoan nor to gloat; my job doesn’t…

At least one Republican presidential candidate (Roemer) is actually good on trade issues. At least one (Romney) may be at least o-kay if he really means what he says.  At least one (Cain) is an odd mix of very good and very bad. And at least one (Perry) seems to…

Reposted from The Huffington Post Curtains for the U.S. Military Industrial Base? Ian Fletcher  |  November 22, 2011  |  The Huffington Post I’m going to turn most of my column today over to a friend of mine, Richard McCormack of Manufacturing & Technology News, who has written an exceptionally important article….

Will America ever learn? No, I guess not. After the failed promises of NAFTA, a job-destroying trade deficit that has burgeoned despite a long series of free-trade agreements, and ever-more-aggressive foreign mercantilism, we’re plowing ahead with even more of these agreements. Fresh from passing the Colombia, Korea, and Panama free…

This is a repost of an article originally printed in The Huffington Post on April 6, 2010. ****** by Ian Fletcher | October 26, 2011 | The Huffington Post Protectionism Didn’t Cause the Great Depression The debate over free trade is riddled with myth after myth. One that keeps resurfacing…