I know it’s fashionable to blame everything on Bush these days, but this sort of thing has been going on a long time, far longer than W has been in office. And you might be surprised to discover that many businessmen who do this sort of thing are Democrats – predatory business practices do not have a strict party affiliation.

That ain’t bad. Industrial capacity is the highest its ever been. So I’m really not buying that NAFTA is really bad for America. Bad for guys who were getting 130000 in compensation a year for a 60000 a year job… not so bad for the average joe who was footing that bill.

Make jobs, not wealth!!

The United States has “lost” most of its agricultural jobs, too. The horrors! The farmers rioting in the streets!

Is nice to see something else is going at full tilt.
Probably this will get Gettelfinger to sign up more memberships.

I was going to ask the same Q. too.Perhaps Daimler blew too much money in the Chryslerbus.
If Daimler buys 60% they could corner the market and charge more for other manufacturers. At least wont let Vee Dub, Porsche, Bimmer to have the cutting edge.

Apparently the US ship building industry is having a labor shortage cause it’s so busy…

The irony of the situation is that Schenk thought they would be better off if they got in bed with a German private equity company, and not with a bank or some foreign investor. Globalism trumps nationality nowadays. We will see whether the Indians do a better job at supporting sustainable business models. It wouldn’t surprise me if they did.

Losing work is an argument you can make, but a couple of days ago, some poster was arguing that we need to protect GM & Co for national security reasons. Those are two different arguments that are often intertwined.

IMO, all this Rust Belt stuff is more the death of unions than the death of manufacturing. At least by the raw numbers.

Schenk Plastic Solutions could have used other methods to raise capital, such as going public, getting their own lines of credit, issuing bonds, etc.

The fact is, Schenk Plastic Solutions didn’t really exist anymore after they sold themselves to Argantis. And it is Argantis prerogative to do what they want with the company they bought, including closing it down.

Now… if Argantis bought it cheap with only the promise that they would bring more cash in later, then then shame on Schenk for letting the company go for a hand full of beans.

I don’t think the problem is lack of, or losing capacity. I think it’s the lack of, or losing work.

Privatize the profits, socialize the losses. It’s Dubya’s compassionate conservatism at its finest.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/G17/Current/ipg1.gif

Which, if I am reading right, would indicate that the US has never had more industrial capacity than it does it today. So the whole furriners taking our industrial capacity thing isn’t really true.

I am going to look this stuff up to make sure I am not screwing this all up, and I think they were liquidated so it’s not the same as this situation. Plus they were in Italy if I remember correctly so German paptent rights might be completely different.

Banks suck, good busninesses brought down because of stupid banking.