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<p>In a move guaranteeing that 2,100 workers will be out of a job, two Indiana plants have plans to move operations to Mexico.</p> <p>The companies, who make products for heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC), will begin layoffs within the next two years.</p>

This is a major economic blow to Indianapolis' struggling manufacturing sector. One of the City's largest employers, Carrier, announced it's closing its manufacturing facility on Indianapolis' west side, eliminating 1,400 jobs. The layoffs will begin in 2017 and be spread over three years according to the Indianapolis Star. Carrier's president of HVAC systems, Chris Nelson, says the move is part of the "continued migration of the HVAC industry to Mexico, including our suppliers and competitors, and ongoing cost and pricing pressures driven, in part, by new regulatory requirements." Let me guess that more than a few of these workers at...

Published reports are saying that Ford plans to build a new auto plant in Mexico, with plans to more than double production there Ford plans to build a new assembly complex in San Luis Potosi and expand an existing facility near Mexico City, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Journal says the Dearborn, Michigan, carmaker will add 500,000 units of annual capacity there, beginning in 2018. That would be more than double last year's production in that country. The newspaper cites unnamed people briefed on the plan. Costs for the project likely will exceed $1 billion, people familiar with...

One of the cornerstones of Donald Trump's campaign has been the fact that millions of jobs have been lost to overseas industries because it is often too expensive to do business in America anymore. Many liberals have criticized Trump for these statements, but the Wall Street Journal recently reported that Ford's latest production move showed that Trump was exactly right. Ford planned to build a new assembly plant in Mexico in order to produce 500,000 more vehicles in Mexico than it currently does. Last year Ford's Mexican output was 433,000 vehicles, which translates to about 14 percent of its total...

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - An Indianapolis manufacturing facility is moving operations to Mexico, impacting 1,400 jobs. Carrier, currently located on West Morris Street, will be moving operations to Monterrey, Mexico beginning in 2017. The move is expected to be complete in 2019. A release by the company said there would be no immediate impact on jobs. The company says the proposal to move is subject to "discussions with local union representatives." "This decision is difficult and we recognize the impact on employees, their families and the community. We are committed to ensuring that our employees are treated respectfully and to working...

How would you react to the following news stories? Former Shoppers Fined $5,000 for No Longer Frequenting Nearby Mall Residents of Anytown, USA were surprised to receive invoices in the mail from their local county government Friday. The county identified people who used to shop in the local mall but, due to reports of muggings, rapes, and vehicle theft at the mall, switched to shopping at other, safer malls, or just doing it online. The thousand dollar a year fine was based on the estimated amount of revenue the mall says it lost due to their departure. Professional economists, when...

Do you see the puppet strings? The plot to disarm Americans and suspend the 2nd Amendment is working with furious pace. But it is anything but head on. The 2nd Amendment makes gun ownership an inalienable right and guarantees armed and formidable populace. The NRA and other lobbies have gun rights firmly entrenched in the Republican party. So the other side works the back door. Infiltration, sabotage and other dirty tricks. Is that what is happening? By all appearances, Soros, the elite wolf in sheep's clothing has been investing in firearms companies not to profit from them, but to destroy...

Trump told the audience at Liberty University that to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States he would make Apple "build their damn computers and things in this country." While this isn't a bad idea, or even the first time it has been suggested, Trump didn't offer any specifics on how he would force Apple to abruptly change its manufacturing. "Please, we have such amazing people in this country: smart, sharp, energetic, they're amazing," Trump said. 'I was saying make America great again, and I actually think we can say now, and I really believe this, we're gonna get...

Dozens of Muslims are outraged after a Wisconsin power plant threatened to fire them if they took two five minute breaks daily in order to pray. The policy change affects 53 workers. Ten of those employees have indicated they wish to stay in their current positions under the new policy but the rest have either chosen to leave or are planning to. The Brillion-based company changed the rule on Thursday. Until then, Muslim employees were allowed to leave the production line twice a shift to pray. But Ariens is now asking employees to pray during scheduled breaks. A company representative...

Tesla made a raft of promises when it accepted a hefty tax-incentive package to build its Gigafactory battery plant just outside Reno, Nevada. While the building itself is coming together ahead of schedule, one Reno newspaper discovered that other parts of the deal have yet to live up to the government's expectations. The Reno Gazette-Journal crunched some numbers, and it discovered that several projections are missing the mark. The Gigafactory, built in partnership with Panasonic, was supposed to produce 700 permanent jobs by the end of 2015, for example. In reality, fewer than 100 have been hired. The company's payroll...

Hillary Clinton and her team are definitely hearing the shuffling footsteps of Bernie Sanders creeping up behind them. The former Secretary of State and her surrogates have been firing back at the Vermont Senator in a serious fashion this week, seeking a way to blunt his recent gains in the polls. The problem for Bernie seems to be that he’s not used to being attacked and has little experience in how to respond. The gut level impulses of either Sanders or somebody on his staff are showing now that the pressure is on because he’s backing off on some of...

Despite recent gloomy private sector and regional Fed surveys, the Federal Reserve's new December industrial production figures revealed that real manufacturing output dropped a bare 0.05 percent on month, and revisions barely worsened the picture. Yet the weak year-end number left such output down on net for five months - one short of a technical recession. And the automotive sector, which has led industry's post-Great Recession comeback, sank into technical recession. Full-year 2015 manufacturing after-inflation growth of 0.74 percent was the lowest such figure since the last recession began, and less than 20 percent as strong as 2014's 4.16 percent...

The company began looking to leave Fairfield, Conn., last year after state legislators threatened to raise corporate taxes. GE’s quest for a new global headquarters can be traced back to a decision by Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy and Connecticut lawmakers last spring to significantly change business tax policies, to help fill a big state budget gap. The package, among other things, altered how multistate companies collect corporate taxes and how losses can be used to reduce tax bills over a period of years.

".....[Donald Trump's] detractors will no doubt see his China-bashing as another example of Trumpian buffoonery. Most students of U.S.-China trade will tell you that both countries benefit from the flow of goods and services across the Pacific, and that although China is guilty of imposing nontariff barriers, subsidizing its exporters in violation of global trade rules, and failing to respect the intellectual property rights of U.S. entities, the pros for American investors, workers, and consumers massively outweigh the cons. There is a problem with that view, however....[snip]......Of all the wackadoo ironies of Trump's emergence as tribune of America's white working...

It's a good thing Trump wants to rebuild our manufacturing base, because it truly has taken a hit. We've turned from a nation of builders to burger flippers. To put in perspective just how bad things have gotten - there were more Americans employed in manufacturing in the months leading up to Pearl Harbor than there are today, despite the fact that the population then was a fraction of what it is today. In that time, there was 1 person employed in manufacturing for every 10.6 people in the overall population compared to 1 person employed in government for every...

Automakers finished 2015 on a high note, with strong December sales helping to set a number of new sales records, as General Motors (NYSE:GM), Ford Motor (NYSE:F), Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) and Fiat Chrysler (NYSE:FCAU) all reported gains. U.S. auto sales eased to an annualized pace of 17.34 million, Autodata said, down from 18.2 million in November and below forecasts for 18.1 million. For the entirety of 2015, U.S. sales hit a record 17.47 million vehicles, breaking 2000's mark of 17.41 million, according to Autodata, as U.S. consumers were buoyed by low gasoline prices, moderate economic growth and easier credit. Ford...

Manufacturing activity is falling at its fastest pace in more than six years, according to fresh data out Monday. And those woes are probably going to continue, industry officials and experts predict, after years of prosperity. "(Production activity) is not really growing, and if it is growing it is not growing by much," said Chad Moutray, chief economist at the National Association of Manufacturers, or NAM, the nation's largest advocacy group representing factory owners. The Institute for Supply Management said Monday that its December manufacturing activity index was the weakest since June 2009, when the recession ended. The 48.2 reading...

Manufacturing activity in the U.S. contracted at the fastest pace since July 2009 in December, dampening optimism over the strength of the economy and adding to uncertainty as to how fast the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next year, industry data showed on Monday. In a report, the Institute for Supply Management said its index of purchasing managers fell to 48.2 last month from a reading of 48.6 in November. Analysts had expected the manufacturing PMI to inch up to 49.0 in December. The New Orders Index registered 49.2, an increase of 0.3 points from the reading of 48.9...

Tim Cook has come out about a real truth of the decline in manufacturing. What he omitted however, is that no one will manufacture in the U.S. unless they absolutely have to due to a 38% corporate tax rate. On 60 Minutes Sunday, Charlie Rose asked Apple CEO Tim Cook about his company’s manufacturing practices in China. Cook said the decision to use Chinese manufacturing has nothing to do with American workers demanding higher wages. He said it was because the Chinese have more skill. “Let me be clear,” Cook told Rose, “China put an enormous focus on manufacturing in...

HARTFORD ~ New Britain-based Stag Arms LLC pleaded guilty Tuesday to violating federal firearms laws and as part of a plea agreement president and owner Mark Malkowski agreed to sell the company and have no further ownership or management role in a gun manufacturer. Malkowski pleaded guilty on behalf of the company in federal court in Hartford to a felony count of possession of machine guns not registered to the company.