Free Republic

“Governor Pence was pleased to welcome Mr. Trump back to Indiana and hear firsthand his plans for the country. The Governor was also grateful for the opportunity to describe Indiana's economic success and expressed his desire to have a partner in the White House who will help advance pro-growth economic policies, reduce burdensome regulation and curb the size and scope of government. With more than 130,000 new private sector jobs created since he took office, Governor Pence believes addressing these issues is critical in order for Indiana to continue to be a great place to live, work and raise a...

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/features/2016-04-21/trump-wave-builds-in-a-steel-town-forsaken-by-the-world-economy

Back in 2011, we wrote about a fascinating new way to heat-treat regular, cheap steel to endow it with an almost miraculous blend of characteristics. Radically cheaper, quicker and less energy-intensive to produce, Flash Bainite is stronger than titanium by weight, and ductile enough to be pressed into shape while cold without thinning or cracking. It's now being tested by three of the world's five largest car manufacturers, who are finding they can produce thinner structural car components that are between 30-50 percent lighter and cheaper than the steel they've been using, while maintaining the same performance is crash tests....

A fifteen dollar per hour minimum wage is coming to California, so break out the champagne and let’s get this party started! Unless you work in the apparel manufacturing industry, that is, in which case you may want to start looking for some cheaper drinks since you’ll likely be out of a job soon. Once the home to a large segment of the American clothing manufacturing industry, California apparel manufacturers have already been hit by skyrocketing commercial real estate value and rising supply chain costs, but another spike in their labor rates will apparently be the final straw for some...

We’ve seen 3D-printed houses before, but most make use of prefabricated chunks. This hurricane and tornado resistant hotel suite in the Philippines was printed in one shot. Sound familiar? This is the work of [Andrey Rudenko], who started by building a concrete 3D printer in his garage 2 years ago, moved on to 3D printing his kids a concrete castle in his backyard later that year and now appears to have a full-blown company offering commercial 3D printed houses. Way to go [Andrey]! The building was designed in Sketchup no less, and the printer makes use of Pronterface for the...

Gun maker Beretta USA is opening a new factory on Friday, the culmination of generous land and tax offers in Tennessee and restrictive gun laws at its old Maryland location. Beretta USA is holding a ribbon cutting ceremony at the recently built facility in Gallatin, Tennessee, on April 15, having moved all manufacturing from Maryland. The new factory is 160,000 square feet, compared to 115,000 square feet if left behind, said Gabriele de Plano, vice president of defense marketing and operations for Beretta USA. "We've got plenty of space to expand as well," he said.

Donald Trump played up his plans to tax companies that move jobs out of the United States as he tried to appeal to blue collar workers in a New York rally Sunday. Speaking for about an hour Sunday in Rochester, N.Y., Trump recited statistics about the area's loss of manufacturing jobs and economic hardship in recent years. He reiterated his desire to tax goods sold by companies once based in the United States that moved away to find cheaper labor. The plan has been widely panned by economic experts. But the Rochester crowd ate it up. "I'm the only one...

The previous advance manufacturing report had showed that durable goods orders in February had declined. However, the drop in durable goods orders has been revised to 3% from the initial estimate of 2.8%. Furthermore, most of the downward revision was made in non-defence capital goods. According to the advance report, the core capital goods orders fell just 1.8%; however, yesterday’s report revised the decline to 2.5%. Core capital goods orders dropped at a three-month annualized rate of 10.2%, whereas the shipments are declining at a 7.7% clip. ... The inventory-to-ship ratio was 1.37 for the third consecutive month. This is...

Tumbling sales of Fiat Chrysler’s main midsize car have driven the company to indefinitely lay off 1,300 employees at a Detroit-area factory. Workers on the second shift at Fiat Chrysler’s assembly plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, will be furloughed starting July 5 as the slow-selling Chrysler 200 has started to stack up on dealer lots. Sales of the cars were down 61 percent through March, and inventory grew to a 150-day supply, according to Ward’s Automotive. Automakers consider 60 days to be optimal to give dealers enough of a selection for customers. Fiat Chrysler sold only 7,500 of the cars...

Ford Motor Co. plans to build a $1.6-billion auto assembly plant in Mexico, creating about 2,800 jobs there and shifting small-car production away from the United States

Industrial Policy: Hillary Clinton’s $10 billion “investment” plan for manufacturing didn’t get much attention. But it should, since it would be a disaster if she ever had the chance to act on it

The United States lost 29,000 manufacturing jobs in March while gaining jobs in retail trade, food services and drinking establishments, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. During the month, jobs in the retail industry in the United States outnumbered jobs in manufacturing by 3,651,100. In February, according to seasonally adjusted data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the manufacturing sector was 12,320,000. In March, that dropped to 12,291,000. …

A problem that has prevented Boeing Co 's KC-46A tanker aircraft from transferring fuel to a C-17 transport plane may delay a Pentagon decision approving low-rate production of the new tanker in May, the U.S. Air Force said on Thursday. "We don't yet know the schedule impact to the planned May Milestone C decision, but the problem is well understood and we don't expect an extended delay," said Air Force spokesman Daryl Mayer. Mayer said the issue arose during testing of the refueling boom that is used to transfer fuel from the 767-based tanker aircraft to a C-17 transport plane,...

In recent years the U.S. has been steadily traversing down a path of destruction. While many Americans have begun to open their eyes to America’s plight, most are still oblivious to the factors that led to our downfall. Recently, the media has been touting recovery, but there are numerous urgent changes that need to be implemented before the U.S. can even think that we are emerging from today’s recession/depression. The New Depression The economic decline in the United States began long before the official beginning of the recession in December 2007. The U.S. is not merely experiencing a “down cycle.”...

On the surface, the March jobs reported was better than expected... except for manufacturing workers. As shown in the chart below, in the past month, a disturbing 29,000 manufacturing jobs were lost. This was the single biggest monthly drop in the series going back to December 2009.  But not all is lost: as has been the case for virtually every month during the "recovery", virtually every laid off manufacturing worker could find a job as a waiter: in March, the workers in the "Food services and drinking places" category, aka waiters, bartenders and minimum wage line cooks, rose again...

Come close. They won't bite though some have been gnawed upon, chewed, and bitten themselves (mostly by labs and golden retrievers, if social media is the source). Weirdly, the weathered boots piled into a bin, located in a far-off corner of the factory, don't smell so bad either. It's hard not to want to touch them, to trace their wrinkles. Each boot carries its own landscape of dings and dust, faded in its own peculiar shade, with its own particular history.

Auto giant Ford is planning a new assembly plant south of the U.S. border, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, and will sharply increase factory output from Mexico just months after signing a labor deal. Citing people familiar with the matter, The Journal reported that Ford will add half a million units of annual capacity from Mexico starting in 2018, which is double the amount it built in 2015. The new assembly complex will be based in San Luis Potosi, and Ford will expand an existing facility near Mexico City, the publication added. The move may heighten the debate over...

When the Ford Motor Co. decided to move jobs south to Mexico so that it could pay its workers less, billionaire businessman Donald Trump was furious. He made trade inequalities and Ford’s betrayal of American workers a central issue of his campaign. And, without his even being in the Oval Office, it worked. In an interview with CNBC, Ford CEO Mark Fields said that the automaker would be “here to stay.” He also said he had outlined his company’s plans in a letter to Trump.

On Wednesday during his radio program Rush Limbaugh responded to a caller claiming Ted Cruz is not an outsider and is “buddying up” with the establishment. Limbaugh clarified to the caller that Cruz is not the hypocrite – the establishment is.Listen to the full clip here: Below are some excerpts from the transcript: RUSH: I just saw there's a caller on line calling me delusional?  CALLER:  I think, sadly, what you all fail to realize is that perpetually you're painting Ted Cruz as an outsider.  He paints Ted Cruz as an outsider.  The Tea Party tried to paint him as an...

The American People are angry. And it is not cyclical anger – after all, we are sitting at the top of the current business cycle. This anger is a secular trend. There is anger at the lack of jobs, there is anger over class warfare , there is anger at police profiling of young black men, anger at conservatives, anger at political correctness, anger at Liberals, anger at the break down of our inner city infrastructures and the poisoning of water in Flint, Michigan and elsewhere, anger at Hillary Rodham Clinton, anger at Donald Trump, anger at the main...