Is there a skills shortage that is hampering the still modest, but encouraging recovery of U.S. manufacturing? That is increasingly the consensus among many economists, and surveys of manufacturing employers also suggest it is a big problem. When President Obama went to Milwaukee recently to laud the uptick in manufacturing in the state, the biggest complaint he heard was the difficulties those companies face in finding properly trained new workers. Read more »

The Obama administration signed an executive order creating a new agency to monitor and protect U.S. interests in international trade. The newly-minted Interagency Trade Enforcement Center will be housed within the office of the U.S Trade Representative and serve as the central hub within government to coordinate matters related to the enforcement of U.S. trade rights in the international exchange of goods. Read more »

A new report from the World Bank says China will have to make structural changes to its economy and society in order to prolong growth for the next two decades, writes Keith B. Richburg for the Washington Post. Beijing must reduce the influence of state-owned enterprises, increase competition in the financial sector, bolster innovation, and ease residency restrictions, according the report. Some analysts say reformers may use the report in preparations for a future ideological debate over the role of the state in the economy. Read more »

I am heading to Wisconsin tomorrow for a series of events on the topic of “Free Trade and Jobs,” organized by the Institute of World Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I will be doing a radio interview Tuesday morning with WUWM, speaking at a Rotary Club luncheon, meeting with the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and then speaking in the evening at the Fireside Forum on Foreign Policy.  The timing is excellent, following President Obama’s recent visit to the resurgent Master Lock plant in Milwaukee, and the key Republican primary vote tomorrow in neighboring Michigan, another state that is highly dependent on manufacturing and heavily exposed to international trade competition. Read more »

In 1992, the price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States averaged $1.13; in Maryland, the state tax on that gas was 23.5 cents per gallon, roughly 20 percent of the pump price. Most other states set their taxes at similar levels, while the federal government levies its own separate tax of 18.4 cents. Almost all the funds have gone into paying for repair, maintenance, and expansion of the roads used by all those drivers paying the tax. Read more »

There is no morally defensible reason for cutting corporate taxes at a time of deepening national debt that will require greater burdens for all Americans, either through higher taxes on income and consumption or lower spending on entitlements, defense, or other government programs. Unfortunately, it is a practical necessity. Read more »