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REB Blogs
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“For a quarter-century,” write Alan Tonelson and Kevin L. Kearns in an op-ed published over the weekend in the New York Times , “American economic policy has assumed that the keys to durable national prosperity are deregulation, free trade and a swift...
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Today's Wall Street Journal report on private-equity investment in metalcasting companies treats the subject as though it were a new development, a trend. I don't know about that. It seems to me that I've written about private equity several times in...
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About two weeks ago the word came from General Motors that an investment program will begin soon to prepare three plants to produce the newest version of the Ecotec engines. It’s a $494-million project, and among the plants to be favored with that investment...
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There will be a metalcasting revival someday, soon, perhaps, but until it’s clear that the industry is reborn it’s going to endure a series of sad demises. We reported two of these closings within the past week, both of them in Indiana. Neither one represents...
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About two years ago I did some research into radio-frequency identification technology — RFIDs, as they are commonly called. The suppliers of the technology and equipment that I spoke to then were very glad to explain how it worked, its advantages, etc....
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It seems that high unemployment rates will been around for a long time. That’s bad for everyone, but if you’re among the unfortunate many who are looking for a new job, it’s worse. And, while there will be no escaping the long discussions about jobs programs...
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Last week ended with some cheering economic news: the total U.S. economy grew by 5.7% in the fourth quarter of 2009 versus the third quarter. It was the fastest rate of quarterly growth since 2003 , and indicators show it was largely the effect of inventory...
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Lots of smart people have been pondering the future of manufacturing lately, bringing forth big ideas about how to overcome its weaknesses and restore its dynamism. Generally, this is a good thing. Human nature needs inspiration, and aspiration. But,...
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Officially, the recession of 2008-2009 is over. Stock prices are rising, as is the overall level of industrial production. But, if the policymakers in the federal government and the Federal Reserve Bank think they’ve succeeded they are wrong: lingering...
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The end of a year brings a certain degree of gloom. That’s certainly warranted in the various cases of foundries and diecasting plants that will not be around in 2010: happily, there are some of revivals to come in the near future, and there remains some...
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A few weeks ago I listened to a presentation by a smart fellow from the Federal Reserve Bank, commenting on economic conditions and offering a few predictions. As an expert in industrial economics, he was confident that federal stimulus spending is working...
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There is a very encouraging report from the Institute for Supply Management, anticipating a strong 2010 rebound in revenues for domestic manufacturers. Their survey of purchasing and supply-chain managers, conducted for the ISM’s December 2009 Semiannual...
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Earlier this year it seemed to me that every time I turned on TV I saw the same annoying, manipulative commercial: a very large industrial company wanted viewers to know that making all sorts of chemicals, plastics, and who knows what, is just a bunch...
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There are fragments of information available for anyone seeking insights about the direction of metalcasting for 2010. The frequency of news reports about plant closings is slowing, and there is a greater frequency of reports hinting at revival plans....
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Over two years ago I wrote a column scolding Ford Motor Co. for its decision then to close its metalcasting plants: it said they were not “core operations,” and my criticism was that Ford was being shortsighted. Last week Ford reported a third-quarter...
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A short report in Business Week prompted a series of thoughts, most of which I'm sure the writer never intended. His simple, but vast, premise is that "the age of transportation" ended in 1969, and that ever since then we've just been tweaking the already...
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More than two years ago the Federal Reserve Bank made a historic cut in interest rates, causing the value of the U.S. dollar to drop decisively. It was striking because that move pushed the dollar into parity with the Canadian dollar, reversing a smug...
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The demise of Saturn was a surprise to me, though it shouldn’t have been one: the auto industry is at rock bottom, so finding investors to stake any venture in that sector is probably impossible. But, for the past 25 years Saturn represented something...
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Labor Day was about a week ago, and I resisted the impulse then to comment on the “state” of labor : it’s too hard to be sympathetic about the significant number of job losses over the past year, while remaining realistic about the circumstances that...
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Headlines don’t seem to command as much attention as they once did, but the top item in the Wall Street Journal a week ago was welcome news to me. “Distressed Takeovers Soar,” (link requires registration) was the lead item on Tuesday. “It’s about time,”...
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People who work in U.S. manufacturing worry almost constantly about the viability of domestic manufacturing. People who are not in manufacturing sense the anxiety, but they misunderstand the problem. A regular correspondent, who owns a manufacturing company...
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General Motors is out of bankruptcy, which is certainly good. If, and how soon, it will achieve anything resembling normal operations is doubtful. Finding a successful routine is going to be a difficult — note that GM’s Saginaw Metal Casting Operations...
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Henry Ford is not remembered for being easy to work with, and Alfred Sloan has various biographers cataloging his failings. While each of them was famously philanthropic, neither one was necessarily likeable. Their legacy is that they turned their visions...
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It was not any sort of clairvoyance that led me to warn about the supply-chain dissolution that is happening as a result of the automakers’ collapse. That this would happen was pretty obvious. Watching it all come apart is discouraging, to be sure. Now,...
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The coverage of General Motors and Chrysler Corp. in the past six months has been overwhelming, but it has not been too deep. The justification for federal aid to rescue these organizations from defaulting has been that they are critical to the manufacturing...
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