FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: US Manufacturing Is Not Dead.
Bondad at 538 takes on the notion that US manufacturing job are gone (and aren’t’ coming back) because free trade agreements like NAFTA allowed US markets to be flooded with cheap foreign goods. He literally graphs the issues to death.
The main point appears to be that that productivity increases and not a dearth of US manufacturing activity, foreign imports or outsourcing has been the driver of job loss in manufacturing. We need fewer workers per volume of goods. He closes with some points about a lack of a US export strategy similar to what’s practiced growing Asian economies, Chinese currency manipulation, and how productivity changes have primarily impacted those lacking a college education.
Update:
You could take the headline one of two ways, either it’s moribund and not coming back: Monty Python: Bring Out Your Dead
or
You could say it’s not dead it’s just resting: Monty Python: Parrot Sketch
Or maybe I just want excuses for posting Monty Python stuff. 
