Join the Movement to American-Made Products

I’m adamantly against profiling — except when it comes to profiling American-made goods. American consumers should do a better job “profiling” anything manufactured in this country and then purchase those goods. You may be surprised to know that when both foreign- and American-made products are offered, the Made in USA product is usually less expensive, and by a wide margin. Besides spending your money wisely, there is another important reason: It creates American jobs, which contributes to American prosperity. I recently visited the Made in America Movement website and came away with some persuasive reasons to buy products made here, especially around the holidays. Scott Paul, founding executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, and Alex Bogusky,... Read More

US Oil Production Will Help Us Regain International Prestige

President Obama has made it clear that he is no advocate of fossil fuels. He has gone to war against coal and refuses to allow drilling on most federal lands for oil. Despite this lack of support, the United States actually has a surplus of crude oil and natural gas. Domestic production is way up — to the point that gas prices at the pump has started to come down. There’s even talk of exporting gas and oil — something that has been restricted since the 1973 OPEC embargo. The United States has a new energy story to tell that lets us operate on the world stage from a position of strength instead of dependence on the shifting prices of foreign oil. A Wall Street Journal story noted that last week, “A delegate to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said... Read More

Are Unions Part of the Jobs Problem?

Trade unions are always proclaiming their mission is to save and create U.S. jobs. But if you have been paying attention to their actions, you would be hard pressed to see this philosophy in action. Jobs aren’t being created by unions — the opposite is occurring. That may explain why union membership has dropped to 6.6 percent of all workers, down from 35 percent in the mid-1950s. Even as the United States engages in important negotiations involving the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC), which could create millions of good-paying American jobs, the left, in a further appeasement of union demands, is trying to derail the U.S. role in the agreement. As a reminder, according to data from APEC, its members — including the United States and China, Russia, Mexico,... Read More

Do Unions Really Care About Creating Jobs?

Trade unions are always proclaiming their mission is to save and create U.S. jobs. But if you have been paying attention to their actions, you would be hard pressed to see this philosophy in action. Jobs aren’t being created by unions — the opposite is occurring. That may explain why union membership has dropped to 6.6 percent of all workers, down from 35 percent in the mid-1950s. Even as the United States engages in important negotiations involving the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC), which could create millions of good-paying American jobs, the left, in a further appeasement of union demands, is trying to derail the U.S. role in the agreement. As a reminder, according to data from APEC, its members — including the United States and China, Russia, Mexico,... Read More

Capping CEO Compensation Is Dangerous

Professional sports players are usually paid based on performance. The better they play, the more money they make. In the business world, CEOs are typically compensated based on the performance of their company. The better the company performs, the more they are paid in salary and stock options. One big difference is that professional sports teams work with a salary cap, which determines how much money they can spend on their players. In the business world, most CEOs don’t have a salary cap (although some publicly traded companies have limits of executive compensation), so their salary and benefits reflect the profitability of the company. They are paid for their contributions. The story that is seldom told is that before CEOs make a lot of money, they had to build their company.... Read More

The Assault on CEO Compensation

Professional sports players are usually paid based on performance. The better they play, the more money they make. In the business world, CEOs are usually compensated based on the performance of their company. The better the company performs, the more they are paid in salary and stock options. One big difference is that professional sports teams work with a salary cap, which determines how much money they can spend on their players. In the business world, most CEOs don’t have a salary cap (although some publicly traded companies have limits of executive compensation), so their salary and benefits reflect the profitability of the company. They are paid for their contributions. The story that is seldom told is that before CEOs make a lot of money, they had to build their company.... Read More

US Car Brands Take the Off Ramp in Korea

As an exporter, I am a big supporter of the South Korean Free Trade Agreement signed on March 15, 2012, because when we open up foreign markets to American goods, the resulting lower trade barriers and tariffs help make U.S. products more competitive. During a recent trip to Korea, a journey I have made countless times over the past 30 years, I couldn’t help but notice that I saw no American cars. This didn’t make any sense to me as we now have a free trade agreement in place. But after a little digging, I discovered that my eyes weren’t deceiving me. The Public Citizen website noted that since the trade deal was enacted, fewer than 1,000 additional U.S. automobiles have been sold in South Korea. Meanwhile, 1.3 million Korean cars were sold in the United States.... Read More

Our Economic Security Depends on Job Creation

The impact of 26 million Americans who are unemployed or underemployed moves this nation further and further away from economic security. Then add in the millions of American who have been forced into part-time jobs (who are five times more likely to live in poverty) and we have an economic picture that would make our Founding Fathers weep. An underlying issue that receives little coverage is that when people don’t have jobs or economic security, they don’t make the long-term investments, which are the bedrock of our economy. There are fewer dollars that can be loaned to small business — our job creators — so the nation is caught in a downward spiral. Lance Roberts from SDT Wealth Management, appearing on the radio show Made in America, noted that the United States... Read More

Take Away the Government’s Checkbook

I run a successful manufacturing and export business. My success depends on our ability to accurately cost the materials and services we consume. If my estimates are wrong, I won’t stay in business very long. Our government has no such apparent obligation. Our tax dollars are being wasted on projects that are so out of sync with accepted norms that one wonders who is involved in these decisions. I think we have to look at President Obama’s advisers, who have almost no business acumen or hands-on business experience. If they did, would they approve the $648 million website for Obamacare when its original budget was $93 million? The start-up costs for this website are greater than are the combined start-up costs for every major social media site, as well as sites like Amazon... Read More

A Wakeup Call to American Business

It’s hard to find any good news surrounding the government shutdown, especially since an estimate from Standard & Poor’s projected that the shutdown took $24 billion out of the U.S. economy and reduced projected fourth-quarter GDP growth from 3 percent to 2.4 percent. Yet, the shutdown appears to have had one positive effect: it awoke a sleeping giant — America’s business community, which has been sitting on the sidelines waiting for the right time to get back into action. That time may have come. Influential business organizations, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, recognize that the Republican party can ill-afford to make another strategic blunder like the shutdown. Now they are ready to get re-engaged with the conservative GOP base that historically partnered... Read More