The main focus of Tuesday’s State of the Union address was the economy and income inequality. Along with his ideas about taxation and protecting homeowners, president Obama also expressed a desire to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. Since the 1980s, the U.S. economy has shifted away from manufacturing and towards intellectual property and services. This has been due in part to the perceived expenses involved in production based in the U.S., as well as labor laws. Beri Fox is president and CEO of Marble King in West Virginia. Her company manufacturers toy marbles, decorative marbles, and those balls you hear inside your spray-paint cans.
Peter Morici is a macro-economist and professor of international business at the University of Maryland, as well as the author of several books, including “Antitrust in the Global Trading System.”