Can U.S. Manufacturing Recover?

Maybe. Clyde Prestowitz thinks it can.

The truth is that the U.S. economy cannot experience a significant, stable, and lasting recovery with out some kind of a manufacturing renaissance

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Fortunately , two recent and important studies indicate that it will. The conventional wisdom to the contrary notwithstanding, Booz & Company's report on the Future of American Manufacturing suggests that production from an American base can be quite competitive except in only a relatively small number of manufacturing industry sectors. It shows that in about half of such sectors, U.S. manufacturers are at present, fully competitive both in supplying the U.S. market and at supplying overseas markets. These are the areas such as aerospace, microprocessors, oil well drilling equipment, and medical instrumentation. In addition, however , it shows that in another 40 percent of industry sectors, U.S.-based producers are presently neck and neck with foreign producer for supplying the U.S. market and that with just a few tweaks, they could be dominant producers for their products in the U.S. market. That means that U.S. based manufacturing can compete in the U.S. market on a head to head basis with foreign producers in about 90 percent of industry sectors. Thus, instead of its present 10 percent of GDP, U.S. manufacturing should, like Germany's, account for around 20 percent of GDP.