Free Republic

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has been mocked by critics for shouting that China is "killing us" economically, but a new analysis of U.S.-China trade shows that the trade gap isn't just at a historic high, but that the imbalance is the widest for any bilateral trade, ever. According to the website Howmuch.net, the U.S. exported $116 billion to China in 2015, the same year China exported $481 billion to the United States, producing that $365 billion gap. And it found that the gap is growing so fast that it will "almost quintuple" over the next 15 years. The site,...

The ability of the US manufacturing sector to produce increasing amounts of output with fewer and fewer workers should be recognized as a sign of economic strength and vitality, not economic weakness. Thanks to advances in technology, the factory floor today is one with modern, advanced, state-of-the-art equipment that requires fewer employees, but with greater skills and training than in the past. The trend in US manufacturing over the last 30 years – more and more output with fewer and fewer workers – is exactly like the transformation that revolutionized US farming over the last 100 years or more. With...

Over the past 28 years there has been a sea change in the media. Not only has the monopoly of the so-called mainstream media been shattered but the phenomenal rise of conservative media has been truly stunning. It began in 1988 with the national syndication of Rush Limbaugh and his distinctive brand of conservative political commentary espoused in an entertaining and captivating way, which opened the flood gates for other conservatives, together with Rush, to dominate the talk radio airwaves. In the 1990’s the internet, through hundreds of websites, gave voice to journalists to report stories either ignored or downplayed...

Since Obuma was elected to POTUS, I have been coming to Free Republic to get news, opinions and a few laughs. Most of the serious posts were bemoaning the out of control government and what could be done about it. "Oh Whoa is Me!". Then along comes a constitutional conservative. For the first time since Ronald Reagan, we have a constitutional candidate running for the GOP nomination. This man was elected by conservatives to go to Washington and stand up to the elites that no longer listen to the American people. He didn't go to Washington and "fall in" with...

There’s been a growing sense of desperation among the #NeverTrump forces for a few weeks now, and as we move closer to largely winner take all states in the primary line-up it was inevitable that full blown panic would set in. One side effect of this increased feeling of urgency is that critics of The Donald have increasingly given up on critiquing the business mogul’s record and frequently mystifying comments, choosing to focus their attacks on his supporters instead. While a seemingly self-defeating strategy, that movement has hit its full stride this weekend with National Review’s endless fountain of Trump...

LORAIN, Ohio - The landscape here looks like a wasteland. And it's about to get worse. Two steel mills in this city, 30 miles west of Cleveland on Lake Erie, are set to close by the end of March, laying off hundreds of people in an area that has seen jobs slowly erode for more than two decades. The final 130 workers at Republic Steel will be out of work when the plant rolls its final order of steel tubular products for oil drilling and fracking equipment in two weeks. And at U.S. Steel, the final 200 workers will also...

Are we be better off today with the thousands of U.S. factories that have shut down and millions of American jobs lost and the trillions in accumulated debt that we've run up in the last couple decades of free trade? And, of course, this is due to many factors including such things as: Big government Regulations High taxes Unions driving up costs Cheap labor overseas Fewer regulations overseas Lower taxes overseas Trade deficits etc., And doubly exasperated by poor trade deals? Or is this all a myth? Are we better off with cheaper foreign (cheap) goods, fewer U.S. factories, fewer...

Breitbart) – Veteran pollster Pat Caddell warns that Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s vote for the North American Free Trade Agreement during his tenure in Congress could cost him both his approval rating as governor and the critical state primary. “I believe — I haven’t gone back and looked — but I think he was in Congress in ’93 and if so, I’d bet you he voted for NAFTA. How much do you want to bet? Somebody ought to look that one up. That’s the real point this morning that could change the election in Ohio,” he told Breitbart News executive...

HP wants to drive the "next industrial revolution" and spark a change in the way products are manufactured with its new 3D printers. The company's first 3D printers will ship later this year, said Cathie Lesjak, chief financial officer for HP, speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference this week. HP first announced 3D printers in 2014, and is now preparing for the big launch. HP is looking to hire materials experts, mechanical engineers, managers and sales people for its push into 3D printing. HP has a rich history in printing and is entering a 3D printing...

The Institute for Supply Management’s Non-Manufacturing Index fell for the fourth straight month to a two-year low in February, signaling slower growth and a slight decline in jobs. The service-sector gauge dipped just 0.1 point to 53.4, the lowest since February 2014 but... Meanwhile, factory orders rose 1.6% in January... Manufacturers such as General Electric (GE) and United Technologies (UTX) have suffered from a strong dollar and weak overseas demand. A struggling energy sector weighed on staff reductions last month, as Challenger reported 61,599 layoffs, down 18% from January’s number. Energy industry layoffs were 25,051, up 24.6% from the previous...

TOKYO — Billionaire businessman Donald Trump’s presidential campaign hinges on Americans who share Trump’s assessment that the United States is losing all over the world. In Mexico, we’re outsmarted on the border. In China, it’s trade and currency manipulation. In the Middle East, it’s the terrorist masterminds of ISIS.

We’ve written quite a bit about the decline of America’s once proud manufacturing industry which is now but a shadow of its former self and long ago ceded its place in the public’s heart and mind to the service industry...And if it was already bad, it's getting worse.

Unless you live under a rock, you must have heard how Carrier made national news over a pending plant closure. Whether you sell Carrier, or not, and whether you like Carrier, or not, you should defend the manufacturer because that’s defending the industry, your industry. What Happened? Carrier announced the closure of its Indianapolis plant with production transferred to Monterrey, Mexico. During a meeting where the closure was announced to employees, one employee whipped out a smart phone and recorded three and half minutes of the announcement, posted it on YouTube, which was picked up by Drudge, and went viral....

1/3 of South Carolina's Manufacturing Jobs Have Disappeared Since NAFTA AP Photo/Paul SancyaAP Photo/Paul Sancya by JULIA HAHN 19 Feb 2016 919 At a CNN town hall Thursday, businessman and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump once again put the issue of manufacturing front and center in the 2016 race. When CNN's Anderson Cooper pressed Trump on whether a U.S. president ought to be sending cease and desist letters and whether he would continue to do so as president, Trump said, "maybe to China" -- pointing out the extraordinary job losses Americans have experienced through trade policies: No... I would be...

Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen faced what may have seemed like an absurd line of questioning on Capitol Hill this week: Has the Fed considered negative interest rates? It's not a fantasy. At central banks around the world, negative benchmark interest rates have become the new normal, leading to some unusual paradoxes. In Denmark, instead of paying interest on their mortgages, many borrowers have been receiving payments from banks on their home loans. On the flip side, some Swiss bank customers have had to pay banks to keep cash in savings accounts. Yellen told Congress Thursday, following negative moves by central banks in Europe and elsewhere, the Fed has...

I agree with Obama for allowing a U.S. corporation to open a factory in Cuba Obama just gave approval for Cleber LLC, an Alabama-based company that builds tractors, to open a factory in Cuba. This will be the first new U.S. factory to be built and operated in Cuba in over 50 years.As a libertarian, I totally agree with Obama on this issue. Bringing global capitalism to Cuba is a wonderful idea.The average Cuban citizen earns $20 per month.Usually, when U.S. corporations open up factories in poor countries, in order to attract workers, they usually pay between two and five times...

Si Se Puede!It’s not just China and Mexico that are taking US jobs… Now, thanks to Barack Obama, Cuba will be building American tractors.Cleber Tractors is building a tractor plant in Cuba.USA Today reported: The Obama administration approved the first U.S. factory to be built and operated in Cuba in more than 50 years, in the latest sign of the rapidly changing relationship between the United States and the communist nation.Cleber LLC, an Alabama-based company that builds tractors for small farms, was notified by the Treasury Department that it could open a facility in Cuba. Co-founder Saul Berenthal said the...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Donald Trump is weighing in on the news that Carrier is moving from Indianapolis to Mexico. 1,400 workers at the heating, cooling, air conditioning, and refrigeration company got word Wednesday that the plant was being relocated to Monterrey.

Here are the workers at Carrier Air Conditioning equipment being told they are moving the manufacturing to Mexico.

<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>