"How Apprenticeship, Reimagined, Vaults Graduates Into Middle Class" wsj.com/articles/how-a…
Neat look at the employer-funded FAME program (started by Toyota & others), which promotes modern ("grey collar") skills w/out a college degree. Love that last line.
Also noteworthy from that WSJ story: a foreign-owned auto company (which relies on domestic/imported inputs) started the FAME program, AND the highlighted FAME graduate (Mr. Brown) worked for an industry (beverage cans) harmed by... aluminum tariffs.
So maybe instead of, you know, closing down America and trying to recreate the industries/jobs of the 1970s, we - you know - remain wide open and let employers/workers prepare for the industries/jobs of the 2020s and beyond?
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Quick thread on this: unless you're notorious car-guy @ModeledBehavior, you maybe didn't notice that COVID-19 has increased US demand for, but crippled N. American production of, pickup trucks. Now, even as US truckmakers are going full-tilt, supply is short & prices are HIGH /1
(Demand for sedans/SUVs has also surged, but the shortages/prices don't appear to be as bad.)
So why, you might ask, are Americans only buying trucks made in MX/CAN/USA, when there are all sorts of cool options made elsewhere (see, eg, these bad boys hotcars.com/20-foreign-pic…)? /2
Well, there are 25% tariffs on those trucks, which effectively block imports from non-NAFTA countries.
By contrast, tariffs on cars/SUVs/vans are 2.5% (or duty-free for FTAs), & we have many more options.
This difference has had predictable results during the pandemic. /3
Key finding: "Accounting for all taxpayers, I find that tax filing in the U.S. imposes a yearly cost in excess of 1% of GDP and that this cost has been steadily increasing since the 1980s"
For my fellow liberal arts majors & lawyers out there, here's your '67-'16 change by group:
Poor/near-poor: -3
Lower middle: -15
Middle: -11
Upper middle: +27(!)
Rich: +2
This new Rubio oped bashing Biden for enabling American "deindustrialization" is a masterclass in economic nationalist myth and misdirection. newsweek.com/joe-biden-repr…
US mfg real (inflation adj) gross output & value-added increased 17% & 52% respectively bt 1997 & 2018 (BEA) /1
Remove semiconductors & computers: still up 26% / 60%!
/2
Nondurables are -1.0%, BUT driven by textiles, apparel, tobacco(!), paper products, etc - nothing that screams "national security". These sectors are also still big! (Textiles/Apparel output 2018: $72.5B). Meanwhile, the important ones (food, energy, fuels, chemicals, etc): up /x
The same studies also note that it was market-oriented Chinese economic reforms - often in response to WTO/accession requirements (& Member demands) - that drove most of the China Shock. Other studies also show the US gained jobs in other sectors & saw big consumer/gdp/mfg gains
So is the WTO now Bad for encouraging all of those market-based reforms? Is it also Bad for providing a venue for the USA to successfully litigate disputes against China (and for China to often comply)?
Or is the WTO now Bad bc the USA & other members didn't bring more cases or pursue compliance proceedings? Is it the WTO Bad bc the US abandoned the multilateral system (and the TPP) and pursued a foolish unilateral approach? (see today's WSJ: