Supply Chain

Trillions for Banks, A Dime for Manufacturers

April 30, 2009

On the occasion of Pres. Obama's first 100 days in office, the U.S. Business & Industry Council has weighed in with their own status report, and for manufacturers, it's not looking good. The Council, which is most assuredly not a conservative-leaning organization (nor, for that matter, are they a liberal-leaning group, either; they seem to play it pretty much right down the middle, with their main bias being pro-manufacturing), calls Pres. Obama to task for what they view as his "almost complete neglect of the cascading crisis in domestic manufacturing, while his economic team focuses obsessively on the financial industry."

Kevin Kearns, president of the USBIC, has written an open letter to Pres. Obama, which you can read here. The best line in the letter, in my opinion, is this one:

"To date, your economic team's approach seems to be trillions for banks, but hardly a dime for manufacturing. You save wrong-doing financial houses from failure, but send good-faith, if sometimes poorly run, manufacturing companies into bankruptcy -- a formula for disaster."

As we pointed out in our pre-election coverage last fall, neither of the major candidates for U.S. President had much, if anything, to say about what they'd do to help the manufacturing industry recover, so it should hardly come as a surprise that, 100 days in, Pres. Obama has yet to address the topic. The more I observe the current Administration's attitude toward U.S. manufacturing, the more I keep hearing the lines of that famous song from The Who: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." So far, it looks like we were indeed fooled again.

About the Author

Dave Blanchard Blog | Senior Editor

Focus: Supply Chain

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Contributing Editor Dave Blanchard provides the IndustryWeek audience his expertise in lean supply chain, reporting on topics from logistics, procurement and inventory management to warehousing and distribution. He also specializes in business finance news and analysis, writing on such topics as corporate finance and tax, cost management, governance, risk and compliance, and budgeting and reporting.

Dave is also the chief editor of Penton Media’s Business Finance and editorial director of Material Handling & Logistics.

With over 25 years of experience, Dave literally wrote the book on supply chain management, Supply Chain Management Best Practices (John Wiley & Sons, 2010), and is a frequent speaker at industry events. Dave is an award-winning journalist and has been twice named one of the nation’s top columnists by the American Society of Business Publications Editors.

Dave received his B.A. in English from Northern Illinois University, and was a high school teacher prior to his joining the publishing industry. He is married and has two daughters.