nationalize the fed
nationalize the fed's JournalMeet the people that make iPhones and iPads
It took the BBC to report this, might cost US Media advertising dollars...
BBC Panorama secret filming inside Apple factory
Watch undercover filming at an Apple factory in Shanghai showing exhausted workers
UK Telegraph 19 Dec 2014
The BBC's Panorama programme sent undercover reporters to Apple's Pegatron factories on the outskirts of Shanghai, where it claims to have uncovered poor treatment of workers and a breach of standards on workers' hours.
The BBC report, broadcast on Thursday, alleged that workers fell asleep during 12 hour shifts on the iPhone 6 production line and were made to work 18 days in a row after repeatedly being denied requests for a day off.
A worker at her post in a Chinese iPhone factory Screen Cap/BBC Panorama
Apple senior vice president of operations Jeff Williams has responded to the allegations in an email to staff, saying both himself and the chief executive Tim Cook were "deeply offended by the suggestion that Apple would break a promise to the workers in our supply chain or mislead our customers in any way".
...Apple employs around 1,400 manufacturing workers in China...
MORE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/11303772/BBC-Panorama-secret-filming-inside-Apple-factory.html
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Apple 'failing to protect Chinese factory workers'
By Richard Bilton BBC Panorama Decenber 2014
Poor treatment of workers in Chinese factories which make Apple products has been discovered by an undercover BBC Panorama investigation.
Filming on an iPhone 6 production line showed Apple's promises to protect workers were routinely broken.
It found standards on workers' hours, ID cards, dormitories, work meetings and juvenile workers were being breached at the Pegatron factories.
Apple said it strongly disagreed with the programme's conclusions.
Exhausted workers were filmed falling asleep on their 12-hour shifts at the Pegatron factories on the outskirts of Shanghai...
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30532463
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Apple iPhone sales trample expectations as profit sets global record
By Christina Farr Tue Jan 27, 2015 Reuters
An iPhone 6 phone is seen on display at the Fifth Avenue Apple store on the first day of sales
in Manhattan, NY September 19, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Adrees Latif
Apple Inc quarterly results smashed Wall Street expectations with record sales of big-screen iPhones in the holiday shopping season and a 70 percent rise in China sales, powering the company to the largest profit in corporate history.
The company sold 74.5 million iPhones in its fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 27, while many analysts had expected fewer than 70 million. Revenue rose to $74.6 billion from $57.6 billion a year earlier.
Profit of $18 billion was the biggest ever reported by a public company, worldwide, according to S&P analyst Howard Silverblatt. Apple's cash pile is now $178 billion, enough to buy IBM (IBM.N) or the equivalent to $556 for every American.
Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said the Cupertino, California-based company would release its next product, the Apple Watch, in April...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/27/us-apple-results-idUSKBN0L02QG20150127
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Apple Sold 30,000 iPhones An Hour Last Quarter, Scored Record Profits
NPR.org 1/28/2015
Sales of Apple's larger iPhone 6 and 6 Plus hit one out of the ballpark last quarter, reports NPR's Laura Sydell...
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2015/01/28/382032411/apple-sold-30-000-iphones-an-hour-last-quarter-scored-record-profits
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How Does Apple Avoid Taxes?
5/28/13 Forbes.com
Apple set up some Irish subsidiaries a mere four years after it was founded. Foreign sales, which account for 60% of Apples profits, are routed through these Irish subsidiaries and taxed nowhere. How is this possible, when the intellectual property that supports the value of Apples products is in the United States?
Apple has an Irish holding company with no operations or employees at the top of its foreign operations. This company also serves as a group finance company. Apple Inc., the U.S. parent of the whole group, pays U.S. tax on the investment earnings of this company. Otherwise, the holding company pays no tax to any government, and has not paid tax for five years. It claims tax residence nowhere.
Beneath the holding company is an Irish principal company that holds the contracts with Apples Chinese contract manufacturers and owns the inventory they produce. It also claims tax residence nowhere, despite having paid some tax to Ireland in recent years, but at rate far below the statutory rate. It and another Apple operating affiliate share the foreign rights to Apples U.S. based technology...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/leesheppard/2013/05/28/how-does-apple-avoid-taxes/
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Chinese Workers Making iPhones Work 11-Hour Shifts, 6 Days A Week, For $1.50 Per Hour
Kevin Smith 7/29/13 Business Insider
Individuals assembling Apple's iPhones in China allegedly work long hours for low pay. A new report by China Labor Watch, a labor rights organization gives specific details of the workers schedules.
Download Report (PDF) http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/pdf/apple_s_unkept_promises.pdf
Workers schedules are set at six days a week, with 11-hour shifts, 20 minutes of which is unpaid. The remainder of the shift is paid at a rate of $1.50 and hour which equals $268 per month before overtime...
http://www.businessinsider.com/china-labor-watch-apple-iphone-workers-2013-7
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$18 Billion profit, no taxes and $1.50/hr labor
"Slavery never ended, it just shifted geographically"- Internet comment
Hyundai Motor Group Concentrating on Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Development
Global Fuel Cell Leader
29 January 2015 Jung Yeon-jin Business Korea
The Hyundai Motor Group is planning to rank second in the global eco-friendly car market by 2020. To this end, the company is focusing on hydrogen fuel cell vehicle R&D at the Gwangju Creative Economy Innovation Center. At the same time, it is going to raise 177.5 billion won (US$162.3 million) in funds with the government for startups in the auto industry and better business management at small and medium enterprises.
The funds include a so-called hydrogen fund of approximately 15 billion won (US$13.7 million), which will be spent on the hydrogen fuel cell industry. Industry-academic idea collection, expert consulting, and mentoring are scheduled, and stations are set up for LPG and CNG-based hydrogen and electric power generation, sale, and storage.
Joint research activities and programs will be underway as well to replace imported hydrogen vehicle parts with domestically-developed ones. Specifically, these will cover the development of separation membranes, base materials, storage, and transfer techniques for fuel cells and external power transmission technology, and so on.
According to the Nikkei BP Cleantech Institute, the global fuel cell market is estimated to reach 400 trillion won (US$366 billion) in 2030. The hydrogen fuel cell industry of Korea is expected to exceed 107 trillion won (US$97.9 billion) by 2040, and they expect to create about 175,000 jobs and produce 23.5 trillion won (US$21.5 billion) of goods...
MORE: http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/article/8810/global-fuel-cell-leader-hyundai-motor-group-concentrating-hydrogen-fuel-cell-vehicle
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Hyundai opens largest R&D center in Gwangju
Hyundai Motor Group Chung Mong-koo takes President Park Geun-hye on a tour of the Gwangju Creative Economy Innovation Center in northern Gwangju, South Jeolla, on Tuesday morning. The Gwangju center opened Tuesday inside the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology campus. [Joint Press Corps]
...The Gwangju center will mainly focus on enhancing the regional economy in Gwangju and South Jeolla by researching eco-friendly automotive technologies such as hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles and hybrid cars...
http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=3000217
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The US can watch, since all it can do anymore is bomb and invade and plan war
#Claptrap
Solar-Powered Seawater Desalination Research Contract Signed in Abu Dhabi
At the World Future Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, a research contract to study seawater desalination using solar power was signed by Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, GDF SUEZ and SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT in the presence of Ségolène Royal, French Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy. The contract provides for a study of possible use of 100% solar power to desalinate seawater, a feat that would be a world premiere.
This project is part of a contract signed in June 2014 by the SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT subsidiary Degrémont to construct a pilot seawater desalination plant potentially powered by 100% renewable energy and with minimal environmental impact. The challenge is important for a region experiencing strong economic development, with limited water resources.
Given heavy energy consumption involved in the desalination process, the use of solar energy to power seawater desalination plants is a major technical and economic challenge, even though over the past 15 years significant progress has been made in cutting the energy required in half. GDF SUEZ and SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT have for years positioned themselves in the region for these questions.
SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT, world leader in seawater desalination using reverse osmosis through its subsidiary Degrémont, is a major player in the Middle East in water treatment and desalination. Following the construction and operation of water treatment plants in Jordan, Degrémont completed the 5th expansion of the Doha West wastewater treatment plant, as well as wastewater treatment plants at Barwa City and Lusail in Qatar. The company recently supplied and installed 33 modular desalination units for treating brackish water at Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)...
http://www.pollutionsolutions-online.com/news/water-wastewater/17/suez_environnement/solar-powered_seawater_desalination_research_contract_signedin_abu_dhabi/33169/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_desalination
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination#Existing_facilities_and_facilities_under_construction
In Australia many desalination plants are utilizing wind farms to produce enough energy to operate nearby desalination plants. For example, the Kurnell Desalination Plant, with a capacity of producing 250 million liters (ML) of drinking water per day, supplies 15% of Sydneys water needs via RO technology and is powered using 100 percent renewable energy from the 140 MW Capital Wind Farm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seawater_desalination_in_Australia
An Introduction to the Carlsbad CA Desalination Plant Project
US Trainers To Deploy To Ukraine This Spring
By Paul McLeary Defense News.com
12:17 p.m. EST January 22, 2015
Also Will Begin Shipment of US-funded Armored Vehicles
US soldiers train with Ukrainian troops during Exercise Rapid
Trident in 2011. (Photo: Staff Sgt. Brendan Stephens/US Army)
WASHINGTON American soldiers will deploy to Ukraine this spring to begin training four companies of the Ukrainian National Guard, the head of US Army Europe Lt. Gen Ben Hodges said during his first visit to Kiev on Wednesday.
The number of troops heading to the Yavoriv Training Area near the city of L'viv which is about 40 miles from the Polish border is still being determined, however.
The American training effort comes as part of a US State Department initiative "to assist Ukraine in strengthening its law enforcement capabilities, conduct internal defense, and maintain rule of law" Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Vanessa Hillman told Defense News.
After meeting with commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Lt. Gen. Anatoliy Pushnyakov and acting commander of the National Guard Lt. Gen. Oleksandr Kryvyenko during his visit, Hodges said he was "impressed by the readiness of both military and civil leadership to change and reform."
Complete Article: http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/land/army/2015/01/21/ukraine-us-army-russia/22119315/
(Figures from September- Today's numbers are higher)
Every HOUR US Taxpayers are paying $10.54 MILLION DOLLARS for the Total Cost of wars SO FAR since 2001
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/
>$2000 PER SECOND is not enough.
Solar energy in a bottle
By John Romano, Executive Director, Telstra
We have been exploring a number of different types of renewable energy generation and storage solutions which we hope will help us to overcome one of the biggest challenges to running a network power supply...
...About a year ago, we installed a solar fuel cell system to provide back-up power to a small exchange, approximately 90km east of Melbourne. Despite being fairly close to Melbourne, this system is in a fairly isolated locality bordering the Yarra Ranges National Park.
What makes our solar fuel cell unique is the fact that the hydrogen (fuel) is being generated from the onsite water using renewable energy (solar). The accumulated hydrogen is then stored and used to generate electricity whenever it is needed. The system currently has the capacity to supply power for up to eight hours.
Over the past six months, the fuel cell has been called upon six times to provide back-up power. These mains power outages have range from as short as 12 minutes to over seven hours. Each time the fuel cell has cut in to seamlessly keep our customers connected...
More: http://exchange.telstra.com.au/2015/01/20/solar-energy-in-a-bottle/
Telstra Corporation Limited (known as Telstra) is Australia's largest telecommunications and media company which builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets voice, mobile, internet access, pay television and other entertainment products and services.
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Related: Telstra tests solar fuel cell for backup power
Telstra is trialling the use of hydrogen-based backup power to keep exchange sites up and running in the event of a mains power outage...
..."This approach is greener and more reliable, we are expecting a return on investment in the 3-4 year window."
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/399531,telstra-tests-solar-fuel-cell-for-back-up-power.aspx
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What Obama Meant By Converting Sunlight into Liquid Fuel
Heres what the president was talking about when he referred to solar liquid fuels in the State of the Union address last night.
Barack Obama wants to convert sunlight into liquid fuel. It was a passing reference in the State of the Union address last night (he highlighted the same technology in his 2011 address). If scientists can figure out how to do this, he said, it could unleash new jobs.
Use solar panels to charge batteries or make hydrogen for fuel cells.
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/534411/what-obama-meant-by-converting-sunlight-into-liquid-fuel/
Toyota delivers 1st Mirai Hydrogen fuel-cell sedan for prime minister's official car
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declares that "the hydrogen era is finally starting" after he takes delivery of a blue Toyota Mirai sedan to be used as the prime minister's official car. (Shinichi Iizuka)
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe went for a spin in the first commercially available hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle (FCV) on Jan. 15 after Toyota Motor Corp. delivered a shiny blue Mirai sedan to his office.
"The hydrogen era is finally starting," Abe proclaimed from inside the car after going for a ride around the grounds in front of the prime minister's office in Tokyo...
...The blue Mirai sedan will be used as the prime minister's official car. Toyota also delivered Mirai FCVs to the economy, transport and environment ministries the same day...
...Toyota announced Jan. 15 that it has received about 1,500 orders for the Mirai during the first month since it started accepting orders. Orders have significantly exceeded the company's expectations. Toyota initially expected to receive about 400 orders by the end of 2015...
More:http://ajw.asahi.com/article/business/AJ201501160057
Toyota to More Than Quadruple Production of New Mirai Fuel Cell Car
Thursday, January 22, 2015
On Thursday, Toyota announced plans to significantly increase production of its Mirai fuel cell car after a successful launch in Japan this past December.
The Japanese automaker said the new plan calls for production to increase from 700 units this year to approximately 2,000 in 2016 and around 3,000 in 2017.
"Considering the approximately 1,500 orders received in the first month of sales in Japan, and the upcoming launches in Europe and the United States later this year, it was decided that the supply structure should be adjusted to reflect the level of demand for the vehicle," Toyota said in a statement...
http://www.carscoops.com/2015/01/toyota-to-more-than-quadruple.html
Hillary Rodham Clinton reviews Henry Kissinger’s book ‘World Order’
By Hillary Rodham Clinton | Washington Post | September 4, 2014
When Americans look around the world today, we see one crisis after another. Russian aggression in Ukraine, extremism and chaos in Iraq and Syria, a deadly epidemic in West Africa, escalating territorial tensions in the East and South China seas, a global economy that still isnt producing enough growth or shared prosperity the liberal international order that the United States has worked for generations to build and defend seems to be under pressure from every quarter. Its no wonder so many Americans express uncertainty and even fear about our role and our future in the world.
In his new book, World Order, Henry Kissinger explains the historic scope of this challenge. His analysis, despite some differences over specific policies, largely fits with the broad strategy behind the Obama administrations effort over the past six years to build a global architecture of security and cooperation for the 21st century.
During the Cold War, Americas bipartisan commitment to protecting and expanding a community of nations devoted to freedom, market economies and cooperation eventually proved successful for us and the world. Kissingers summary of that vision sounds pertinent today: an inexorably expanding cooperative order of states observing common rules and norms, embracing liberal economic systems, forswearing territorial conquest, respecting national sovereignty, and adopting participatory and democratic systems of governance.
...Kissinger is a friend, and I relied on his counsel when I served as secretary of state. He checked in with me regularly, sharing astute observations about foreign leaders and sending me written reports on his travels...
Complete Review: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hillary-clinton-reviews-henry-kissingers-world-order/2014/09/04/b280c654-31ea-11e4-8f02-03c644b2d7d0_story.html
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Hillary Clinton most effective secretary of state: Henry Kissinger
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had nothing but praise for Hillary Rodham Clinton on her own leadership of the department, even going so far as to say she did a better job than he did.
Ive known her for many years now and I respect her intellect, Mr. Kissinger, 91, told USA Today. And she ran the State Department in the most effective way that Ive ever seen.
Even better than he did?
Yes, Mr. Kissinger replied. I was more chaotic.
Mr. Kissingers kudos comes on the heels of Mrs. Clintons own gift of high praise for his newly released book, World Order....
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/10/henry-kissinger-touts-hillary-clinton-most-effecti/
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Watch Henry Kissinger (and Biden, Kerry, Clinton, Bush and even Nixon) talk about the "New World Order"
"It's time to actually create a New World Order" - VP Joe Biden, April 5, 2013
Happy Birthday Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King delivers the "I Have a Dream" speech, given in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
What would MLK advise RE: France?
Syria?
And would MLK Jr. have adivsed the US to "help" bomb Libya?
Bailing out Big Banks on the backs of the poor and middle class?
Sorry we didn't listen to you kind Sir.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 15, 1929
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Died April 4, 1968 (aged 39)
Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Asahi Shimbun: Promote hydrogen as a major energy source for Japan's future
JAPAN'S CUTTING-EDGE HYDROGEN TECHNOLOGY
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe became one of the first people to experience Toyotas upcoming fuel cell sedan when he drove the vehicle at a hydrogen fueling station in Kitakyushu, Japan.
...Under these circumstances, hydrogen energy is attracting much attention. Expectations are rising that hydrogen will serve as a new leading energy source along with solar and other traditional renewable energy, power Japans renewed economic growth and act as a force that changes society in the process...
...Toyota is by no means the only Japanese company that has cutting-edge hydrogen technology. One example of state-of-the-art Japanese hydrogen technology is the Ene-Farm, a household fuel-cell system that supplies electricity and hot water by using hydrogen from natural gas as a fuel. Demand for the system, put on the market by a major Japanese gas supplier and other companies in 2009, has grown sharply since the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Total sales of the product surpassed 100,000 units last year. No foreign company offers a similar system yet...
...Japan also leads the pack in the number of patent applications related to fuel-cell technology. Japans figure is more than five times larger than that for the second-ranking country.
Some local governments have started working to use hydrogen technology as the core element of new urban development projects...
......In the new basic energy supply plan it released in April last year, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry pledged to realize a hydrogen society. In June, the ministry announced a road map to achieving that vision, spelling out measures that should be implemented by 2050. These steps should be taken steadily to push the nation toward a future powered by hydrogen...
MORE: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/views/editorial/AJ201501130050
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Related: Honda reveals fuel-cell powered car
USA Today January 13, 2015
Guests look over the Honda FCV fuel cell powered concept car during the media preview at the North American International Auto Show on Jan. 13, 2015, in Detroit.
Honda showed its next-generation hydrogen fuel-cell car for the first time in North America at the Detroit auto show, saying the car is the headliner that will usher in a new age of Honda innovation -- including a move to turbocharged engines that Honda so far has avoided.
The exotic-looking fuel-cell car, called the FCV Concept, is scheduled for U.S. introduction in 2016.
http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/detroit-auto-show/2015/01/13/honda-auto-show-detroit/21687573/
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Hydrogen posts have a way of bringing out people that love to say "It can't be done" or "It's too expensive" or "What's wrong with electricity" (from burning coal)?.
The reader can believe a few (quite vocal) posters that know almost nothing about Hydrogen (other than the Hindenburg crashed) or they can listen to people like Dr. Chris Borroni-Bird, Dr. Michio Kaku, Ph.D. and Noted Environmentalist Amory Lovins (Read Twenty Hydrogen Myths by Lovins here). In any event, none of these anti-progress, credential-less people will manage to stop Hydrogen tech- which is in its infancy. They won't even be able to slow it down-even a tiny bit!
Featured: Michio Kaku Ph.D.
Larry Burns VP R&D and Strategic Planning GM corp
Dr. Chris Borroni-Bird
Vice President, Strategic Development, Qualcomm Technologies Inc.
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The Hydrogen haters have some time to prepare for the 2020 Olympics, which will show that Japan has done what the US couldn't.
Japan plans to develop 2020 Olympics Village into 'hydrogen town'
January 6, 2015 IBTimes.com
Japan is planning to turn the athletes' village for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo into a "hydrogen town", where electricity and hot water are generated from hydrogen.
Japanese newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, reported that the Tokyo metropolitan government has decided on the plan, which is set to be the "largest experiment employing the new energy source".
After the Tokyo Olympics are over, the electricity and hot water generated with hydrogen energy are expected to be furnished to a school, and commercial and other facilities to be constructed on the village site. The village will later be converted into a town with a population about 10,000...
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/japan-plans-develop-2020-olympics-village-into-hydrogen-town-1482091
The Hydrogen news has barely begun...Watch what happens because not everyone gets to see the birth of a whole new age
#HydrogenClaptrap
Guardian: The US 'manufacturing renaissance' doesn't exist, says new report
Despite all the much-heralded talk of the rebirth of manufacturing, a new report suggests that the trend may be vastly overstated
Suzanne McGee Guardian.co.uk 12 January 2015
Have we been letting a good story get in the way of the facts?
The manufacturing renaissance has been the central point in the return of Americas industrial power. It even has its own national council.
Yet here are the facts: the United States may have added only about one new manufacturing job in the last few years for every five that were lost during the financial crisis and the recession that followed.
Thats according to a new report from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a non-partisan and nonprofit think tank based in Washington DC. The report was released early this morning.
We have stretched six cool examples [of the rebirth of manufacturing] into a whole news trend, says Adams Nager, economic research industry at the foundation and, together with its president, Robert Atkinson, the co-author of the report...
Complete article: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jan/12/the-us-manufacturing-renaissance-doesnt-exist-says-new-report
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The Myth of Americas Manufacturing Renaissance: The Real State of U.S. Manufacturing
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
January 12, 2015
To listen to most pundits and commentators, U.S. manufacturing has turned a corner and is roaring back after the precipitous decline during the 2000s. Long gone are the dismal days when manufacturing jobs and output were lost due to foreign competition. Higher foreign labor costs, cheap oil and gas here at home and automation are combining to make America the new global manufacturing hub: at least according the now dominant narrative. Indeed, the term manufacturing renaissance is used to describe this new state of affairs...
...Myth: Global shipping costs are unusually high, making it easier for the United States to produce more for U.S. and European markets.
Fact: Undersupply led to skyrocketing global shipping costs in 2008. However, today shipping costs are back to normal after falling by 93 percent in a six month period in 2009.
...Myth: The Shale Gas boom gives U.S. manufacturing a substantial advantage
Fact: Reduced costs for shale energy has had an impact only on energy intensive industries, and then only a minor one. For 90 percent of the manufacturing sector, energy costs are lower than 5 percent of shipment value. The benefits are largely restricted to the petrochemical sector and drilling operations...
MORE: http://www.itif.org/publications/myth-america-s-manufacturing-renaissance-real-state-us-manufacturing
Download report: (PDF) http://www2.itif.org/2015-myth-american-manufacturing-renaissance.pdf
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A prophetic interview with Sir James Goldsmith in 1994 Pt1
Must See-Sir James vs. Laura D'Andrea Tyson
The TPP will put the last nails in the US Manufacturing Coffin.
A nation that can't make shoes is hardly a "Superpower".
But the US can make Drones and give $5 BILLION DOLLARS to Ukraine!
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Member since: Wed Mar 12, 2014, 08:47 AMNumber of posts: 2,169