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Yes, We Do Still Make Things in America

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3/20/2010

Walk into any big-box store in the country and you’d be forgiven for thinking that nothing is made in America anymore. Yet even as countless U.S. companies have moved production to other countries, American factories continue to churn out hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods annually — everything from Ford trucks and Boeing airplanes to Gordon & Smith surfboards and Viking appliances.

 

The term PIIGS has been coined to refer collectively to Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain. Aside from being a cute acronym, the term describes the actions of these countries very aptly as they have acted "piggish" in issuing debt to support overzealous government budgets. While the American media has at times made light of these countries and their PIIGS moniker, the same mistakes are at play in creating domestic pigs.

 

The $2 Trillion Hole. Promised pensions benefits for public-sector employees represent a massive overhang that threatens the financial future of many cities and states. Some 80% of these public employees are beneficiaries of defined-benefit plans under which monthly pension payments are guaranteed, no matter how stocks and other volatile assets backing the retirement plans perform.

 

Is China's Politburo spoiling for a showdown with America? The long-simmering clash between the world's two great powers is coming to a head, with dangerous implications for the international system.

 

The U.S. and the U.K. have moved “substantially” closer to losing their AAA credit ratings as the cost of servicing their debt rose, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

 

 

 
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