back to article Trumping free trade: Say 'King of Bankruptcy' Ross does end up in charge of US commerce

Say hello to Wilbur Ross, "King of Bankruptcy" and the likely next US Secretary of State for Commerce – the man charged with implementing President Trump's promise to bring home the jobs stolen by cheap labour countries using free trade policies. Suppose he has his minions look over the storage industry, what will they see? …

  1. Xamol
    Trollface

    It's a Great Plan

    I like it. It'll be great! Go the Donald!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It's a Great Plan

      It'll be yuuuge.

      FTFY

      1. Oh Homer
        Paris Hilton

        It's easy. Honest.

        Increase wages, decrease prices, and pay for it all out of the billionaires' vast profits.

        Now all The Donald has to do is to convince his fellow billionaires to actually work for a living, for a more reasonable income, like the rest of us.

        That ends foreign exploitation and brings home American jobs, in a single stroke.

        Ream the profiteers. That's how you fund American growth. It's a yuuuge source of funding. The best sort of funding.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: It's a Great Plan

        The best plan ever!

    2. Mark 85

      Re: It's a Great Plan

      The fatal flaw is that any manufacturer worth their salt will point to fearless leader and say, "when he moves his clothing company's production to the US, we will too.".

      Point of reference is his clothing line is made Vietnam currently. IF he won't, why should anyone else be forced to do it.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Trump promised to bring jobs to US...

    ... but never promised they would be well paid jobs. My take is the plan is to have US workers paid Chinese nuts.

  3. Voland's right hand Silver badge

    Same idiocy regardless of location

    There is no plan.

    In order to have a plan you need to EDUCATE the workforce. It does not matter if it is the factory floor or the coders in the open plan office. You need to produce educated labor in bulk quantities.

    Now, how the f*** can this work out with USA or UK educational systems requiring tens of thousands of thousands to traverse? Here is some news for you - it f***ing does not.

    The secret to German industrial dominance in Europe is the German technical education. It produces qualified labor with the efficiency of a VW or BMW plant. Or vice versa. It is massively subsidized too. Similarly, we may not like South Korean (or other countries with "cheap" labor) educational systems, but they do produce the people to fill the positions.

    USA and UK cannot and will not compete. Not any time soon. Especially with the current USA education secretary and her desire to disassemble the few remaining working bits in the USA educational system to please the religious nutters.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

      Shhh, don't worry your head about it right hand, you'll wake Comrade Big John and he'll come in and tell us all that Trump has the plan, he has drained the swamp and the best people are now in charge who can and will fix everything to Make America Great Again (Do we know when that was yet?)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

        Shhh, don't worry your head about it right hand, you'll wake Comrade Big John and he'll come in and tell us all that Trump has the plan, he has drained the swamp and the best people are now in charge who can and will fix everything to Make America Great Again (Do we know when that was yet?)

        When? I'm thinking late 1940s (when only white males had rights, Japan had two nuclear craters, German manufacturing had been destroyed, and China was still in the 19th century), or perhaps the 1910s (before inconvenient things like child labor laws, women voting, the EPA, etc)

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

          "When? I'm thinking late 1940s "

          I'd have said the 50's for mainly the same reasons. except by the 50's, cars were "yuuuuge" and had fins and the world of SciFi with the flying car/personal jet-pack etc were just a few years into the future :-)

    2. macjules

      Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

      There is nothing to say that the drive manufacturers continue to maintain those factories and plants for worldwide production. Just means that anything they want to sell in the USA would have to be made locally, so let them build plants Stateside.

      1. Tatsky

        Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

        RE: "There is nothing to say that the drive manufacturers continue to maintain those factories and plants for worldwide production. Just means that anything they want to sell in the USA would have to be made locally, so let them build plants Stateside."

        Do you have any idea how much it costs so set up the infrastructure to support one of these factories, let alone create the factory itself? And even if you could invest that sort of cash in getting a factory, you still have the huge issue of a complete lack of qualified workforce.

        It would take around 10 years for the USA to build up the level of expertise and numbers of personnel to make this happen.

        China et al have invested bigly in their factories and workforce. They have created who cities to support this manufacturing.

        To make this a reality would take an overarching 15-20 year plan to gradually pull back production from international factories.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

          And the biggest issue is no one in the US will make long-term investments - all US "shareholders" want - including many of the Trump's friends now at the helm - is easy money every three months. And executives will bend just to get their bonuses.

          In the US finance killed the industry. It's far easier to move money around, than look for ideas (and bright people who have them) and run a manufacturing company (and share earnings with employees).

          Who's in the government now? Entrepreneurs who created large, healthy industrial companies with thousand and thousand of well paid workers? No. Mostly, financiers who took advantage of the market to make money - often borrowing from banks, and never using their own money (quietly stored in tax havens...). Or an oil executive who was paid 180M for leaving, poor lad. Or someone who sells wresting matches... oh well, a country were wrestling sells, what could go wrong?

          1. H in The Hague

            Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

            " In the US finance killed the industry. It's far easier to move money around, than look for ideas (and bright people who have them) and run a manufacturing company (and share earnings with employees)."

            Interesting idea. Here in NL where I work (and also in Germany I think) many businesses, even some v large ones are privately held. One of the things they always emphasise is that they're in it for the long term and that they can make investments which only pay off many years ahead. Their employees also seem to be loyal to them and stay with their employer for decades.

            One of my customers not only has the third generation of the family running the business but also second-generation employees. Not having to present three-monthly reports to shareholders must help. (Of course, there are also poorly run companies in NL, it ain't perfect here.)

            And there's still a vocational technical education system here though probably not as extensive as it used to be.

        2. Shaha Alam

          Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

          "To make this a reality would take an overarching 15-20 year plan to gradually pull back production from international factories."

          that's fine because trump was expecting to stay in power for a lot more than 4 or 8 years.

          now, what circumstances are needed to galvanise the republic into granting him emergency powers to exceed his mandate as president, well, i think we all know what form of public persuasion that takes...

          next step, the reordering of the republic into the First Amerikan Empire.

          1. Blank Reg

            Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

            He'll be impeached or assassinated long before then.

            Or we can just keep relentlessly mocking him until he has a stroke while trying to keep up with the nasty tweets.

        3. John Smith 19 Gold badge
          Unhappy

          "Do you have any idea how much it costs so set up the infrastructure"

          The last figure I saw for a chip factory (and I presume DRAM is still the leader for highest density, smallest dimension chips) was $3Bn

          But that is a generation or two out of date.

        4. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge
          FAIL

          Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

          Do you have any idea how much it costs so set up the infrastructure to support one of these factories, let alone create the factory itself?

          So, China/S. Korea/Vietnam state gives lots of free money (sorry - startup grants) to a brand new set of companies that just happen to have all the plans and designs of the current generation of palnts and products, as well as a big pool of trained and educated people to run them.

          Problem solved. It'll take a couple of years, but that doesn't matter in planned economies. And gives the funding Governments another big stick to beat the West with (after all, the Governments will retain a large, if not controlling stake in the companies) and will be able to outcompete the incumbents on price. At which point, the re-US-ified companies go into liquidation/get taken over/get asset-stripped by the VC vultures and the US ends off worse than before.

          Yup. Make America Great again. For a very short time and in a self-destructive and shortsighted fashion. But the Great Wind won't care because he'll have had his moment in the limelight and his ego will have been fed for a while.

      2. thegroucho

        Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

        This implies any significant quantity of HDDs and SSDs (etc, et al) is actually manufactured in USA.

        Which I doubt and think most are imported (if not all).

        Slap the tax on the imports, the corresponding end product becomes more expensive.

        Sell it in USA for a lot more than it cost prior to the insane taxation and then the end buyers will suffer, not the manufacturers.

        Unless you intend to import the drives, manufacture something in USA and then export the end product.

        Unlikely but possible.

        I can see this working with the foreign car manufacturers, at least there is some car production still left in USA and most of the workers of the bankrupt companies are still alive and well within the working age.

        1. Tom 38

          Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

          Slap the tax on the imports, the corresponding end product becomes more expensive.

          Sell it in USA for a lot more than it cost prior to the insane taxation and then the end buyers will suffer, not the manufacturers.

          Unless you intend to import the drives, manufacture something in USA and then export the end product. [..]

          I can see this working with the foreign car manufacturers, at least there is some car production still left in USA and most of the workers of the bankrupt companies are still alive and well within the working age.

          Hard drives are not cars though. Car manufacturers have to sell their cars where their consumers will use them, so if they want to sell cars to americans, the cars have to be in america.

          Hard drives don't necessarily have to be located where their users are using them. Obviously, hard drives in PCs/laptops etc do, but think of all the hard drives google, amazon, et al have in their datacentres; those hard drives represent a huge chunk of the market, and there is no need for the hard drives servicing americans to be located in america. You could put huge datacentres in Mexico and Canada, and put the hard drives there. There are no plans to tax bytes on the wire yet, right?*

          If he does put a tariff on hard drives, then yay! This will make businesses around the world more competitive compared to american companies. If that forces hard drive manufacturers to move operations back to the US and increase costs for all of us, then there will be a bunch of empty HDD manufacturing capacity in Thailand for someone else to step in and undercut them.

          * I do hope I'm not giving him ideas...

          1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

            "This will make businesses around the world more competitive compared to american companies."

            And also outside the TLAs' snooperage.

      3. Alan Brown Silver badge

        Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

        "Just means that anything they want to sell in the USA would have to be made locally, so let them build plants Stateside."

        And thanks to protectionism, they'll be able to sell Stateside for whatever price they want.

        This is Trump's idea of Free Trade - the polar opposite of what most people define it as.

    3. Otto is a bear.

      Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

      It's true, unemployed people do not contribute very much to the market, and the more money that goes to the very rich actually contracts the market. So what you need is more people in the middle ground with good jobs that want to buy stuff, which means you have to have people making and designing stuff in your economy. Low paid workers don't buy much stuff either so having lots of low paid factory workers doesn't do much for your end market.

      The other bit that's missing here is VW, BMW and alike work closely with the education system, and actually train people themselves. In the UK and US, it seems to me that companies want schools and colleges to produce graduates who can walk into their plants and coding shops to start work without any training. I have heard senior managers say to many times, that there's no point in training people because they just leave, and training is always chopped as soon as targets are in jeopardy.

      When I started, I was given all the training I needed by the companies I worked for when I joined, they were after capability not qualifications. So thank you GEC (The UK one) and Xerox.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

        It's true, unemployed people do not contribute very much to the market, and the more money that goes to the very rich actually contracts the market. So what you need is more people in the middle ground with good jobs that want to buy stuff, which means you have to have people making and designing stuff in your economy. Low paid workers don't buy much stuff either so having lots of low paid factory workers doesn't do much for your end market.

        But Trump is going to bring back good-paying, non-automatable factory jobs.

        When I started, I was given all the training I needed by the companies I worked for when I joined, they were after capability not qualifications. So thank you GEC (The UK one) and Xerox.

        Ah, but that deprives the private education companies.

        I saw an ad today - I can take a 12-week class, become a "web developer", and earn "an average of $105,000" per year!

        [see "How to teach yourself programming in 10 years" https://norvig.com/21-days.html]

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

      It's almost as if Trump completely forgot that he's supposedly taken economics classes.

      Higher costs lead to higher prices, inflation, and potentially unemployment.

      Oh wait, he doesn't care, he just wants the value of the Trump Mahal to increase.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

      >USA and UK cannot and will not compete. Not any time soon.

      Yes the USA education system is a bit crap in most places but the way the US has traditionally made up for it is by stealing all the best and brightest in the rest of the world that come to our Universities for what they think are a few years but we end up capturing many of them for far longer. Of course the Donald is probably going to ruin that (might as well roll out the white Euros only place mat, not to mention the Republicans looking at our University funding as only feeding a dirty liberal factory) so yeah we're fscked.

      1. Voland's right hand Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

        Yes the USA education system is a bit crap in most places but the way the US has traditionally made up for it is by stealing all the best and brightest

        The best and the brightest do not do grunt work on the shop floor. Modern manufacturing requires at the very least secondary technical or technical baccalaureate. In Germany you will find it difficult NOT to graduate with a secondary technical. In USA and UK you get a liberal arts butt-wiper and you are useless for any _MODERN_ manufacturing until you have spent 40K+ for a BS degree on top of that. 40K is not an investment which fits the economic realitites for a factory floor grunt.

        So sorry, no bonus - with the current educational systems UK and USA are not competitive and will never be until they start subsidizing technical education at all levels to at least a fraction of what Germany, South Korea, China, etc do. No tariffs, walls, revocation of treaties, quoting at Tory conferences from the Mein Kampf will help here.

        1. Gray
          Windows

          Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

          Empirical examples: When I worked in a leading print shop in Boise, ID, the practice was for each shop to hustle trained talent from other shops. There was no entry-level training, and very little on-the-job training. Industry-proficient vocational training was not offered in area schools.

          Currently, living on a large Pacific NW island, we've been stymied trying to convert a home heating system from electric to propane (95% efficiency upgrade). No electrical concern we've called even bothers to return phone calls. One local heating contractor retorted that "we cannot find qualified workers to hire." I dared not ask why they didn't offer an apprentice or on-the-job training for local kids needing their first job. Fact: small US business cannot afford the expense of training; they get no tax breaks in most areas; and few vocational schools offer such training, and those that do are quite expensive. So we see small business stealing each others employees, or limiting their services to existing accounts. That's the situation in our small chunk of the world.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

          >The best and the brightest do not do grunt work on the shop floor.

          No but they do develop the technologies and companies that change the world which is still what the US is fairly decent at (Silicon Valley, etc). Actually the US is already a manufacturing power house its just we have done it with automation which requires somewhat STEM educated people as you imply (what I do for a living). I just dispute the German model is what the US necessarily needs. For one thing Germany's model is a bit of a house of cards that requires other countries borrowing money to buy their stuff. Greece and the other southern Euros kind of exposed the weakness to a German led trading block. I am not sure what the answer is and I agree we do need to revamp our education system but currently it looks like the answer will be to use what money we have to send well off kids to religious based schools which is probably not the medicine we need. Good STEM education requires having a population that actually believes in science or even facts.

        3. quxinot

          Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

          >The best and the brightest do not do grunt work on the shop floor. Modern manufacturing requires at the very least secondary technical or technical baccalaureate.<

          The best and brightest have been working out how to line their own pockets whilst screwing the poor bastards on the shop floor for many, many years.

          There's very few companies willing to play the long game, because they want their bonus today. Management isn't hard, you hire good people, keep them as happy as is reasonable, give them what they need to do the work, and get out of the way!

    6. Chemical Bob

      Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

      "you need to EDUCATE the workforce"

      You only need to educate them as well as the average Chinese laborer.

    7. zvonr

      Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

      Timeless as well... and using Tariffs to "encourage" companies to create local jobs will most likely not work... The thing about Tariffs is that once somebody starts with them it will create a chain reaction that will be difficult to stop...

      For fun here is an economics lesson about the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act from the "Ferris Bueller's day off" movie:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhiCFdWeQfA

      That does not mean that trade agreements could not be improved so that companies don't do environmental, labor... law arbitrage which results in pollution export, child labor....

      1. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

        using Tariffs to "encourage" companies to create local jobs will most likely not work.

        so go the OTHER way... CUT taxes! You know, like LOWERING the corporate tax, for starters... [yes it's on Trump's agenda]. and cut regulations. and so on.

        Supply Side Economics - aka 'Reaganomics' - works every time it's tried! Even JFK would agree, as he outlined basic supply side economics in his 1962 speech at a New York economists get-together. I heard a replay of it. It was interesting to hear supply-side out of a Democrat. It made me like JFK even more. No _wonder_ they assassinated him! He must've had LBJ and the other liberals ripping out their own insides over it.

    8. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Childcatcher

      Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

      "In order to have a plan you need to EDUCATE the workforce"

      no argument there, however, when education focuses on "feelings" instead of FACTS, social engineering instead of the "3 R's", and so forth, those poor widdle snowflakes won't be able to hold a job, let alone perform well. Might as well start fixing the problem at its source.

      yeah no more telling those young 'skulls full of mush' (as Limbaugh would say) that it's all "whitey's fault", that American history is filled with social injustice, the Pilgrims were saved by the local "native Americans" and repaid with injustice, that slavery existed until Malcom X and the Black Panthers started THEIR movements, yotta yotta yotta. And the _RACIST_ poetry of Maya Angeloo...

      If we taught the kids how to read, write, do math, and STANDARD history [not 'revisionist' social engineering] there'd be plenty of well-educated potential employees ready to go to work.

      Same for colleges, but SQUARED.

  4. Dr. Mouse

    These populist movements seem to wish to end (or at least limit) globalisation. Fair enough, but I wish they'd stop pretending it was about ending inequality.

    IIRC everyone in the Western/First world is in the top 10%. This means that, by "bringing jobs home", the top 10% get richer, and everyone else gets poorer. It increases inequality.

    That's not to say that something doesn't need doing "at home", too. But at the very least, admit that the attitude is "Screw that guy in China/Korea/India. I don't care if he starves, I want more moneys!!"

    1. Roger B

      Thats what gets me about the policy in the US now of taking all the factories from Mexico, each factory built in Mexico gives jobs to Mexicans who suddenly have an income, support a family, support their local businesses and so less Mexicans perhaps feel the need to travel north and cross the Rio Grande.

      Every factory Trump takes from Mexico means the wall needs to be higher.

      1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

        That's far too complicated

        for a genius like DT to even begin to understand let alone anyone in his cabinet.

        Yet everything will be 'Tremendous' in the end.

        I forsee lots of plants planned and even construction started but never finished. After all a workforce consisting of one man and a dog can't build a HDD plant in 4 years now can they.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: That's far too complicated

          "I forsee lots of plants planned and even construction started but never finished. "

          I see lots of plants announced, not necessarily planned or construction started. There's another issue in this though - whether the factories "move home" or tarriffs are apploed, prices go up, and another batch of politicians crop up talking about unfair pricing / gouging.

    2. c1ue

      You're seriously trying to defend offshoring of employment as "fixing global inequality"?

      With a dash of: You deplorables are part of the top 10% richest in the world anyway?

      Solipsism: It isn't just about me anymore.

      1. Dr. Mouse

        You're seriously trying to defend offshoring of employment as "fixing global inequality"?

        With a dash of: You deplorables are part of the top 10% richest in the world anyway?

        I'm not defending anything. I'm just pointing out the obvious contradiction of using "fixing inequality" as an excuse for protectionism.

        The majority of the world would jump at the chance to be in the bottom 10% of the American (or UK/European etc) population. As stated above, too, the worse it is for the RoW, the more people want to come to "the West" (or get peeved that the West is so rich, and attack/overthrow governments etc). Every job lost in poorer countries means more money must be spent on "keeping the immigrants out", or dealing with uprisings/wars etc.

        Consider the car factory which was being built in Mexico that's now been cancelled. Just in building it, there were a hell of a lot of Mexican workers employed. These workers would be much less likely to want to go to the US. The same with those who would be employed in the factory when it was finished. Instead, the plug has been pulled, loads of people find themselves back to barely having enough to put food on the table, and the factory will not employ workers as it won't open.

        You now have hundreds more who may consider trying to enter the US illegally. The US, in addition to having to pay more for their cars, will have to spend more on policing the border (or accept an increase in illegal immigration).

        It's all so counter productive. The best way to reduce illegal immigration is to make it less attractive by improving the quality of life of those elsewhere. Of course, the other options are the ones being taken by Trump:

        - Spend a fortune on protecting the border, and

        - Make the US less attractive to foreigners by making it a horrible place

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          The majority of the world would jump at the chance to be in the bottom 10% of the American (or UK/European etc) population.

          Not the American population. Being broke and homeless in the USA isn't necessarily better than living in a hut with 10 families and eating berries somewhere else in the world.

    3. Filippo Silver badge

      These movements get backed by openly racist groups. It is not a coincidence.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      wholeheartedly agree

      Couldn't agree more .. which is why i get even more pissed off by lefty christian charidy types like Oxfam and Christian Aid banging on about inequality etc in the west and putting it down to globalisation .. these people need to remember that whilst a few hundreds of millions of westerners aren't getting rich as quickly as they were, in general the standard of living has continued to increase for the vast majority and poverty is relative ... objectively, all but the very bottom end of the ladder in the west are in no way "poor" in the way the real poor are around the world. Meanwhile BILLIONS have been raised out of poverty worldwide and large middle classes have emerged in China, India, Mexico, Brazil etc and the middle class is growing fast in Africa too... globalisation is a sort of issue for rich western societies who have lived off the backs of the exploited global poor for centuries .. but even though there has been a downside for us, there has been a huge upside with no real inflation for a couple of decades and generally much much cheaper imports and a higher standard of living.

      1. Shaha Alam

        Re: wholeheartedly agree

        I think their criticism about inequality is mainly that the system, as it is, pushes wealth upwards. so whilst globally more people have improved their circumstances, more and more wealth is still moving upwards - and at a faster rate.

        if you follow the trend, this means that those who managed to climb out of poverty will start sinking back into it. much as how citizens in western countries are now less well off than their parents generation, for example.

        i'm not saying that rich shouldnt be rich or that they should give wealth to the poor. the point is that we need to fix a system where that gap seems to only get wider and wider. eventually we went even be having this discussion in terms of relative wealth, but in terms of absolutes, ie the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. some people will simply own *everything* and everyone else will own nothing. that the 'have nots' dont die off of hunger will be dependent on the generosity and benevolence of the 'haves'. democracy will cease to function (given the power of the wealthy to effect democratic outcomes suggests we're not far off) and the gulf between the two worlds will be so vast it will be difficult to describe the two groups as sharing any semblance of humanity (other than a genome)

        its a mathematical certainty, if wealth continues to accrue in fewer and fewer hands,

        1. Dr. Mouse

          Re: wholeheartedly agree

          I think their criticism about inequality is mainly that the system, as it is, pushes wealth upwards. so whilst globally more people have improved their circumstances, more and more wealth is still moving upwards - and at a faster rate.

          I agree. However, the move to "bring jobs home" is stealing from the poorest to give to the slightly less poor. Or, looked at from the point of view of the poorest, stealing from the poor to give to the rich (as the poorest in the world will see the poorest in the USA and the West as rich).

      2. Adam 52 Silver badge

        Re: wholeheartedly agree

        "lefty christian charidy types like Oxfam and Christian Aid banging on about inequality etc in the west and putting it down to globalisation"

        Christian Aid and Oxfam bang on about inequality. I don't recall them blaming globalisation. Indeed both are strong advocates of fair trade as a mechanism to lift people out of poverty.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The "screw them" attitude only applies if people want to use favoritism and protectionism to create _export_ industries.

      I would advocate for policies that favor domestic production, which in high-cost economies encourage a focus on productivity over cost-cutting.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Major Flaw

    Of course, all those lovely offshore people with the skills and knowledge will simply setup their own companies competing directly against their former employers.

    1. Strahd Ivarius Silver badge

      Re: Major Flaw

      But since it will be foreign companies they will succumb to the "Buy American Act"...

      1. Chris G

        Re: Major Flaw

        Buy American? That's a laugh, I don't doubt the quality of US products because that is usually good to high but with the bringing home of all these industries will come higher prices and with a currently unfit for purpose work force possibly a drop in the usual quality. Add to that the crazy cost of US shipping charges to foreign parts as well as import duties and nobody will be buying American unless they have a gun to their head(figurative or literal), that is likely to include a lot of Americans too.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Major Flaw

          Buy American? That's a laugh

          Yes, and you actually have to wonder how much Trump really is in favor of that. After all, his buildings are made with Chinese steel, his campaign baseball caps were made in China.

          If "Buy American" doesn't reduce his personal profits, then he may be in favor of it. Republicans in congress might not though.They can point to how unpopular he is as to why they shouldn't return to isolationism

      2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Major Flaw

        But since it will be foreign companies they will succumb to the "Buy American Act"

        And the existing big US companies will succumb to the "Don't buy American Movement". There's a lot more of the planet outside the US than in it (one of the disadvantages of living in a large country may be that you don't notice that) which means that the multinationals risk losing out on a large market. They might start to think the unthinkable: moving nevertheless out of the US except for a small subsidiary to service that particular market.

    2. Tatsky

      Re: Major Flaw

      Or. The US companies and Gov realise they don't have the staff to operate their new shiny semi-conductor factories, so they have to bring that resource in. Cue mass immigration and free movement of qualified workers.

      Over simplified I know, but how do you get 10s of thousands of qualified semi-conductor and electronic manufacturing plant workers at the flip of a switch?

      People are working out that the last 20-30 years of trying to force everyone down the university route was the wrong way to go. There needs to be vocational education, so that those who feel university is not for them have a suitable level of education and training to get them good work. It's astounding that this has been mentioned before, but fallen on deaf ears. Now that the UK are leaving the EU, one of the solutions to becoming an industrial powerhouse is vocational training.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Major Flaw

        Quote:Now that the UK are leaving the EU, one of the solutions to becoming an industrial powerhouse is vocational training.

        I'm old enough to remember the 1960's speech by the then PM Harold Wilson. He talked about the 'White Heat of Technology'. It was a load of crap. Most speeches on this subject by politicians are pure crap.

        But, back then we had less pressure on everyone to go to University. Vocational trainnig and CFE's were all over the place. You could do City & Cuilds courses plus ONC/OND and even HNC Engineering at my one. Being an fitter or machinist or a plumber or a brickie was not a career to be sniffed at.

        I did my time as an apprentice toolroom fitter. Then I went to Polytechnic on the back of an ONC in Mech Eng. You got a degree level education but very practically oriented.

        It seems like our PM wants that sort of thing back. About time too IMHO.

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: Major Flaw

          He talked about the 'White Heat of Technology'

          Followed by "What's our whitest hot technology project? Cancel it."

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Major Flaw

            You mean the TSR2 then....

            I think the dates are a bit out but I agree with you.

        2. SeanC4S

          Re: Major Flaw

          Have you seen the level of industrial automation these days? That rules out a lot of employment options. There is no time machine back to the economy of the 1960's.

          I have no answer to everyone piling into zero skills, low paid service sectors jobs. My only answer is to lower the cost of living by deliberately distorting the lower end of the property market with public housing projects. Providing food stamps and allowing people to engage in informal self employment.

      2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Major Flaw

        "how do you get 10s of thousands of qualified semi-conductor and electronic manufacturing plant workers"

        How qualified are such workers other then being trained in-house?

    3. kmac499

      Re: Major Flaw

      We'll maybe If a female CEO turned around to the minion and said "When Donald stops sourcing his wives from offshore we'll start basing jobs in the US"

  6. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    Alternate Facts

    Great article but ... the evidence so far is that, regardless of what has been said in the election campaign, whatever has been said doesn't matter.

    To this administration "facts" about the market are just that - "facts" ... they are no more likely to be influential in the direction that the country takes than other alternative "facts" - in America these days all "facts" are equal, but some "facts" if uttered by the President, are way more equal than others.

    1. Adrian Tawse

      Re: Alternate Facts

      Is there anyone else getting the impression the The Trump is a little unhinged. He seems to live in an alternate reality. He seems to have lost his grip on the real world. Is he going mad?

      If so just what is the constitutional process for removing him from office.

      1. Sam 15

        Re: Alternate Facts

        "Is there anyone else getting the impression the The Trump is a little unhinged. He seems to live in an alternate reality. He seems to have lost his grip on the real world. Is he going mad?

        If so just what is the constitutional process for removing him from office."

        No problem.

        Trump will simply define his mental state as "sane" - and have critics banged up in a sanatorium somewhere (costs of 'treatment' not covered by the ACA obviously).

  7. DavCrav

    "What will Wilbur Ross's minions do then to help bring the jobs home and have US-owned companies staffed by US workers exporting US-made products?"

    And this is your problem. If the US starts a massive trade war with the rest of the world, why the hell would everybody else allow US companies to export stuff from the US to their countries, and why would they allow US companies to repatriate their profits from said business?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I'm sure they can count on the UK to buy whatever they're selling and at whatever price; and we're so nice our government wont even insist on being able to sell our stuff to the US on equal terms.

      Eventually the UK's creditors will give up on us and that nice Mr Trump (or more likely his successor) will offer us statehood on terms that will make lend-lease look like a charitable donation.

      1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

        We have a rather large trade surplus with the USA.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Thats before the upcoming US/UK trade deal - remember, President Trump is not in favour of other countries having trade surpluses with the US cos that means they're cheating somehow.

        2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          "We have a rather large trade surplus with the USA."

          How long will that last once the EU treaty we use to trade with the USA is no longer applicable and the Hard Nosed Businessman is in charge of the trade negotiations which normally take 7 years or more and we have to get something in place in less than 2?

          The UK is going to be desperate to get trade deals done ASAP and that's NOT a good place to start negotiations from. The only mitigation is that we already trade with most of those countries, but this does give them a significant edge for the near future.

          1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

            The EU don't have a trade treaty with the US. So we'll be on similar WTO terms with the US when we leave.

            Personally I don't see us getting a trade deal with Trump, because his rhetoric is anti trade deals and because it also has to pass Congress. But he's not exactly Mr Consistent, and there's a possibility his ego is so yuuuge that he may want to agree one with the UK if we let him play golf on the Queen's private course. Which is a small price to pay I guess.

            If the terms are bad, then we already have a trade surplus with them without a trade deal, so no problems.

            Also, if we leave the EU, we don't have to set the same tariffs on incoming US goods as the EU do, so there may be some substitution of EU imports for US imports - which might make them happier. If the EU don't give us a good deal, there's even an incentive to play favourites with trade deals and deliberately cause that to happen.

            Although there are good arguments for having no tariffs at all on imports, even if people have tariffs on our exports - often legal issues are more of a barrier to trade than tariffs anyway, which is why free trade deals are often so complex. We're the world's second biggest exporter of services, which don't attract tariffs - so problems are all about regulatory agreement.

            Incidentally that's why Germany and France were so keen on the single market in goods, but 15 years later have never got close to completing the single market on services, which would favour the UK too much. To be fair it's also because the legal changes required are often much deeper and more involved/complex. But it's also a matter of policy.

  8. James 51

    What happens when a market like China puts it foot down and says you can't export the minerals those products are made from, you have to do the refinement and manufacturing here? I know alternative sources could be found or alternative technologies developed but in that gap whoever has the minerals and the factories making the stuff (with a lax attitude to IP) has the opportunity to be the only seller.

    Of course on the other shoe is that thanks to automation only a fraction of the jobs promised are actually available.

    1. Peter2 Silver badge

      If China does do that, then unused or underutilised mines, refineries etc are going to go back to work.

      I think Tim Worstall pointed out that China did actually do this with rare metals, with the result that a mine re-opened in Australia(?) which then reduced the commodity value for those metals to a point below that they had before cranking the prices up. (obviously his economics lessons must have sunk in to some extent!)

      Any viable business is going to directly employ fewer people due to higher use of automation, yes. However somebody builds the robots and somebody else programs them, plus repair and service jobs. Let's be honest, the substantial majority of the people reading this are in IT? Our industry stands to benefit as the programming and service jobs are IT jobs.

      1. Alan Brown Silver badge

        "Our industry stands to benefit as the programming and service jobs are IT jobs."

        1: It doesn't take many people to service robots (some but not many)

        2: It doesn't take many people to supervise robots (1 per shift usually. Some factories only have 2-3 people inside at any one time (I've seen completely automated sawmills with 1 person monitoring for trouble))

        3: Improvements in computing are likely to mean that programming will mostly be machine-generated, not crafted by 'uuumans. (fewer jobs)

        So yes, IT jobs will still exist, but don't expect employment to increase.

        Growing automation will inevitably bring fabrication closer to the consumer, but that doesn't mean jobs will move with it. Any company building a new large-scale factories in the USA will be building with as many robots as possible and as few humans as possible and "made by people" will become expensive boutique items.

  9. 4d3fect

    No naming please?

    Can we all agree to stop using his name, a la the Harry Potter works? Call him the Yam, or Cheetolini, anything, just stop gratifying his insane urge to see his name in print at any cost.

    I see the door, I'll let myself out, thanks.

    1. Tatsky

      Re: No naming please?

      How about Fart?

      It works in the UK, same thing.

      An ill thought out Tweet could then be described as Farting. Oops, I just farted.

      We could turn the internet into one massive South Park joke.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: No naming please?

        I think 'la tromperie' is better.

    2. cd

      Re: No naming please?

      I've been calling him Dunning Kruger for some time now.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "...Trump's promise to bring home the jobs stolen by cheap labour countries..."

    stolen?

    ahh i see, when the 'West' cant compete, even when they write the rules of the trade game and stack the chips in their favour, they have to turn to loaded language to make it look like they've been swindled in some way.

    noone stole your fucking jobs, you obnoxious, dim-witted, insufferable arseholes.

    1. Dr. Mouse

      noone stole your fucking jobs, you obnoxious, dim-witted, insufferable arseholes

      Exactly. America and the West have been promoting free trade, free markets and capitalism for decades (if not longer). However, now that the RoW is competing with them, they are whinging "waaa, that's not fair, they're cheating!"

      1. Alan Brown Silver badge

        The problem could be expressed in an empireish way.

        Manufacture of cloth in the UK wasn't started up because it was cheaper - after all, looms and steam engines work just as well in India.

        It was started as a matter of government policy to keep balances of payments funnelling towards Britain. By importing raw products and exporting finished ones, it added value - and this is what you must always do to if you wish to keep your vassal states (empire, commonwealth) subjugated. Indian-produced fabrics were both of higher quality and cheaper than UK ones.

        By allowing the vassal states (china/se asia) to produce and export finished products, the empire (USA/UK and other "western" countries) has bled itself dry - allowing itself to be diminished whilst the previously weaker states have gained in both wealth and confidence.

        Casting off a vassal state which relied on the empire for the vast majority of its export income and trade goods (Australia/NZ and England) does not leave the empire in a good bargaining position when it comes back, cap in hand asking for trade deals, especially when the empire no longer produces any trade goods of notable value and the former vassal states now have robust trading agreements with other countries which do (that said, both AU/NZ rely far too much on primary exports, especially Australia with its minerals)

        The path that Trump is pushing leads to Trade Wars - which some people might say never ended (oil being one example), but I haven't seen anyone recently parking gunboats offshore in order to persuade a country's leaders to buy products from another country.

    2. Rosie Davies

      Umm...

      I could be wrong but I feel that you are taking the article to be far more factual than it is or was meant to be. Lots of truthiness and a dash of sarcasm and a large dollop of satire.

      If it turns out you're right though then yes. What you just said.

      Rosie

    3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      "noone stole your fucking jobs, you obnoxious, dim-witted, insufferable arseholes."

      I agree with you but I and 99% of the people in "the West" object to being associated with the likes of The Trump. From "our" point of view the jobs have been stolen, but not by the countries who got them. They were stolen by the owners and boards of the multinationals in search of bigger profits.

      On the other hand, as has been mentioned mush further up-thread, giving other nations a leg up and thereby reducing poverty worldwide is a good thing, even at the cost of slower "western" growth since it allows people to stay where they are instead of becoming economic migrants or illegal migrants through necessity.

  11. Mark C 2

    Crystal ball..

    US products will become more expensive and less competitive on the international market while short-term subsidies will make them cheaper domestically. The demand for cheaper non-US products will increase, particularly those that are labour-intensive and will stimulate the wider global economy. The US economy will see a decline and their tech sector will lose position due to fewer competitive pressures as they will only have a domestic market.

    Airbus should do very well because the growth market is Asia and is not yet saturated. The domestic US automotive sector will gain initially because people will be encouraged to buy inferior American cars through tariffs but they don't really export them so no impact to the rest of us.

    Lower taxes means increasing public borrowing to fund $Trillion infrastructure projects / increase Defense spending or, cutting back in other areas. Global tax laws will get reformed because all that profit going to the US via tax havens will become an issue for the rest of us if they start adding trade tariffs.

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: Crystal ball..

      "US products will become more expensive and less competitive on the international market while short-term subsidies will make them cheaper domestically."

      Not quite.

      US products will become more expensive and less competitive on the international market

      Imported products will become far more expensive in the US domestic market

      US products will become more expensive in the domestic market - but not as expensive as imported ones.

      Because they are protected from competition, US product quality will decline, to the point where "Made in the USA" becomes a warning label and noone will touch the products even if they're cheaper (This is what happened with american cars in the 1970s-90s, and with british cars in britain from the 1950s onwards)

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: Crystal ball..

      "US products will become more expensive and less competitive on the international market while short-term subsidies will make them cheaper domestically. "

      no, no, no. Just no.

      What you don't understand is Supply Side Economics, and how effective it is. No need for gummint subsidies. JUST! CUT! THE! TAX! RATES! and people will have more money to spend. That "primes the pump". Then cut CORPORATE taxes so THAT is no longer motivation to move offshore [and may be motivation to BRING BACK production]. Then cut the REGULATIONS that make it extremely difficult to get things done. [these are all in Trump's plan]

      THEN, just LET the private sector "do its thing". keep enough regs to level the playing field and prevent outright exploitation, and VOILA! Prosperity happens!

      [keep in mind that labor-intensive processes, which work well when paying pennies per hour, will most likely be replaced by ROBOTS, which means that engineering for ROBOTS will become a 'new demand' and a good way to earn money, just like when computers replaced rooms full of people adding up numbers.]

      so it looks like your crystal ball is broken. Either that, or it only shows you what you WANT to see...

      Note: this is like a 'Batman Gambit' in that it relies on people acting according to their own nature, rather than a 'master manipulator' plan that must control everyone by manipulating or forcing a particular outcome...

  12. ntevanza

    @Margin

    We played this game when we moved to Wales in 2001. The 300 jobs we would create were all over the press. It was all meant well. Maybe 50 happened. No journos turned up in year three to check. Ford and GM are playing this game right now. Tomorrow it will be the tech industry.

    Some factory moves will be announced and there will be pageantry. There will be some tax tweaks, and trade tweaks, that will be spun as a revolution for the working man (sic). In general, nothing will change, because it can't, except at the margin. This is not new.

    I read some of the opinions on Fox News (do not try this at home). The 2016 election was about nationalism, not about economics. The forgotten middle the alt-right claim to speak for (whose jobs are supposed to have gone to Asia) is just collateral damage in a right wing identity crisis.

    (Brexit is also a right wing identity crisis.)

    The genius of Tr*** is that he doesn't have to do anything to claim victory, other than claim victory.

  13. Florida1920
    Headmaster

    The message is clear

    Buy you kit now, while you still can afford it.

  14. JLV

    Trade wars ahoy

    And all of this will happen quietly, because the other countries whose goods are going to be highly taxed on import have never heard of trade wars and retaliatory tariffs. And trade wars and autarky have a brilliant record of improving economy and living standards everywhere.

    You know, I was having a discussion with a friend where the "well, at least with Donald, unlike Hillary, the tension with Russia will go down". She does otherwise hate his guts.

    So... lemme see. You elect a total nutjob who is going to be pals with Putin and his prickly-but-has-been Russia. As if pandering to Russia was usually a Republican hallmark.

    Same nutjob's campaign pledge is to drag the up-and-coming future superpower, China, over hot coals.

    So, cozy up to the losers and aggravate the guys who are gonna take over*? Yeah, makes total sense.

    * I am sitting on the fence wrt China. They could be a relatively benign dominant power, quite possibly. But they could also transform into quite the bully - their various South China sea island claims are ridiculous, soon as you look at a map. Are they for real? To stir up nationalism in support of their un-elected rulers? Who knows?

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: Trade wars ahoy

      "their various South China sea island claims are ridiculous, soon as you look at a map. Are they for real?"

      No. It's a porcupine reaction to perceived increased US hostility and rising nationalist sentiment at home (ie, having the bases looks good in the media)

      The PRCA is amply equipped to defend the country but the abliity to project power is woefully lacking, even with their navy, aircraft carriers and air force. That said, they don't want to. You can conquer the world militarily, or just do what the chinese have always done and conquer invaders by assimilating them, or in the case of potential invaders, trading with them to ensure they're too dependent to be a threat.

  15. SeanC4S

    The right wing view of the world is that you do something and it is done. There is no counter reaction from those you have affected. That guy has already set a 1000 dynamics in motion that he and those who go with him have little or no ability to contain. Already you can see the geopolitical fault lines appear.

    1. ntevanza

      This is a very perceptive comment, if I may be so bold. These are people who can't think other than in fixed categories. You're either an immigrant or you're not. You're white or black, male or female, alive or dead (cf abortion). There's not much space in this world view for the epistemological humility and provisional knowledge that characterizes skepticism, the scientific method, open inquiry, or ambiguity. This may be why science in general, and evolution in particular, drives right wingers nuts.

      This kind of digital boundary-based thinking 'maps' directly to geography and nationalism. The psychology of it is unfortunate, because these categories become bound up with identity, which humans use to hold their analogue brains together.

      A useful aside is that thinking in simple categories both looks like common sense, and is very effective in management, because it is easy to package, prioritize, and communicate. Vague managers are bad managers. Categorizing things makes you look like strong and decisive. Loss-making products will be axed, Immigrants will be sent home, projects are either finished or they aren't, abortions will be stopped. Acknowledging that the world is complicated and all knowledge is provisional makes you look weak and indecisive, even if it's true.

  16. Big_Boomer Silver badge

    "May you live in interesting times"

    Perhaps "Le Pet" would be an appropriate nickname for him?

    Who was it that outsourced all these jobs to cheaper labour countries in the first place? It was "Le Pet" and other rich people who saw a way to make more money by moving production where the labour was cheapest. I think he is going to be very upset when he realises just how long it's gonna take to get this in-sourcing done. Certainly way longer than his maximum 8 years in office.It's gonna be interesting to be on the inside of the train crash that is now imminent across the world with this rise in Nationalism or so called Populism. Anyone wanna start a sweepstake on when the first shooting war starts over this? Humans really are unbelievably stupid and short-sighted, not to mention short on memory.

    1. Chris G

      Re: "May you live in interesting times"

      I would call him the Mandarin, it would appeal to his ego, Mandarins being Scholar Bureaucrats who governed China for centuries; on the other hand it is a soft easily peeled orange that tends to go rotten quickly.

  17. short

    Corporation tax, repatriatrion, Apple?

    Can he bribe Apple to start building stuff locally, by allowing them to repatriate their massive cash stash with a temptingly low tax rate?

    Or, of course, threaten them with the opposite and see what happens? Do Apple actually want the cash in the USA?

    I'm so glad I'm insignificant in all this. Head down, keep making stuff, see what happens.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Corporation tax, repatriatrion, Apple?

      Apple have always said they would repatriate a lot of their cash if the US tax rates were (much) lower.

      However they may now be wondering if doing so will limit how they can choose to use it later on.

  18. Rich 2 Silver badge

    Bring it home

    I'm no fan of Trump and I doubt he'll manage it but I see nothing wrong with bringing manufacturing back (his) home.

    I find it astinishing that the US and the whole of Europe have spent the last 40 years POURING money into China. We don't even like them!! We don't trust them. Their govt is not very nice and they are using the money we gave them to screw us over and generally throw their weight around.

    In the meantime we have created wastelands in our own countries with regard to employment and quality of life. Huge swaithes of the US and large parts of the UK.

    And yes. Prices wil rise. But the benefits outweigh this enourmouy

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Bring it home

      "I find it astinishing that the US and the whole of Europe have spent the last 40 years POURING money into China. We don't even like them!! We don't trust them."

      "We" didn't. It was individual businesses in the main, in a race to the bottom in terms of costs while trying to maximise profits. There was no policy to do this. It's worth noting though that China was late to the party. South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and others are all in this game. And the race is on in Africa now.

  19. Rich 2 Silver badge

    Bring it home

    I'm no fan of Trump and I doubt he'll manage it but I see nothing wrong with bringing manufacturing back (his) home.

    I find it astinishing that the US and the whole of Europe have spent the last 40 years POURING money into China. We don't even like them!! We don't trust them. Their govt is not very nice and they are using the money we gave them to screw us over and generally throw their weight around.

    In the meantime we have created wastelands in our own countries with regard to employment and quality of life. Huge swaithes of the US and large parts of the UK.

    And yes. Prices wil rise. But the benefits outweigh this enormously

  20. MR J

    Fraud is the issue

    The USA would have plenty of money if they could reduce the amount of fraud that takes place.

    I know a guy (he is related to me) that does work on schools, jails, courthouses and other government buildings. He wins nearly every contract he goes for because he is so cheap. On paper his business has 0 staff members, loads and loads of property (that sometimes gets left behind when buildings flood or fall in), and he works jobs privately as well. They pay no tax at all AND claim money back for himself (he is disabled) and his two children.

    You think to yourself that such people couldn't get away with doing such things... But the only time I know it was questioned was when the guy who questioned it ended up getting a nice extension on his home for free (using surplus materials).

    I also know a small lumber mill that used to use all Mexican workers paid only in Cash. He did get shut down once - but only once.. All of his "staff" were deported and a few months later he was up and running again. "American Made" Lumber, no tax, staff paying no income tax. He has shut the business now but the problem was not the "Illegal Workers", it was the "Illegal Employment" offered by the owner.

    Within the USA (from the area I used to live at least) corruption is so high that moving everything back to the USA would be a horrible idea. I know business that allow people to trade their food cards for booze or tobacco (gas stations that sell more milk in a day than gas, should raise eyebrows, but NOPE). I know people in the IT industry who move money away just so the can claim benefits... Earn 600k one year and pay no tax PLUS get money back for the care of your kids... Really?..

    If someone wants to make American great again they would either move all tax to 0% (and find some way to get revenue from products) or tackle all of the fraud that takes place. When Trump pushes to get things moved back to the USA it will only end with huge subsidies being given to large multi-nationals. The markets are going to move great. Right now American growth is about to go through the roof, but the typical person in the USA has little hope of being any better off.

  21. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Happy

    "chief bootlicker"

    Is that an actual thing?

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wonderful

    DT is making it popular to be areshole and say whatever you want, with no repercussions.

  23. Alan Brown Silver badge

    Mercantilism

    and protectionist policies.

    Never mind that the USA has tried this twice before and suffered badly as a direct result. The last bozo who attempted to import tax "everything" was Herbert Hoover.

    The other downside is that mercantilism and protectionist policies lead to trade wars. With real bullets. Do we really want to rerun WW1 again?

    1. zvonr

      Re: Mercantilism

      Explained here :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhiCFdWeQfA

  24. Adrian Tawse

    The alternative

    is to move all new storage arrays to South Korea. Even more jobs lost in the US.

  25. sdunga

    Blah blah blah

    In theory all good, in practice there aren't qualified people to work in many of these areas globally. Every single company has too many vacancies open where ever. Not a single hiring manager will tell you a different story. Now the interesting part. Many of these companies promising to create jobs in US know they can't fill them, so either they will just open them and never fill them or bring people from India or alikes. I know that SAP as an example that just said they are creating thousands of us jobs, are relocating by the tens people working in Bangalore campus to San Francisco for half of the local market price. And again this will not benefit US, regular American will still be unemployed, they will be sponsoring immigration, salaries will level down and in the end the money will be sent abroad back to the original countries. Really don't think these guys have an exact idea of what they are doing and in the process will give tax benefits for nothing. Reality is that US doesn't have enough native population with the skills required and global market is the only able to give an answer for the demand and even like that all companies are struggling. Final note India got a bad reputation because people thought IT engineers grown from trees and in the end they were pulling anyone from the street and quality was obviously bad, same happening in east Europe countries like Bulgaria, same happened in china, same will happen in US, they will start offering low quality to satisfy quantity demand.

  26. SQL

    So does that mean the rest of us will be getting cheap storage built by people who've been doing this for years while Americans will be paying more for storage built by former welders?

  27. Potemkine Silver badge

    Good news, everyone!

    If things go that way, that will leave a lot of opportunities for non-US competitors

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