US manufacturing still tops China’s
Boston Globe | A job for Myth Busters!

In economics as in apparel, most fashions come and go. But like the navy blazer or the little black dress, bewailing the decline of American manufacturing never seems to go out of style... [However,] according to the UN..., America’s manufacturing output in 2009 (expressed in constant 2005 dollars) was $2.15 trillion. That surpassed China’s output of $1.48 trillion by nearly 46 percent. China’s industries may be booming, but the United States still accounted for 20 percent of the world’s manufacturing output in 2009 — only a hair below its 1990 share of 21 percent.

Of course the Globe was fed this story by AEI; the RNC is pushing back on President Obama's (admittedly awful) "Sputnik" moment and attempt to spur action by comparison with China. [One of my favorite popular economists, Greg Mankiw, also but couldn't help but poke holes into clearly rhetorical flourishes -- to petty a task for too good a mind.] So in both the economic populism and Sino-phobic categories, let's consider this another salvo in the on-going pot v. kettle war.

I will say that this article reminded me of one of my favorite (and blatantly populist/nativist) commercial: