U.S. manufacturing’s share of overall employment has been plunging for decades, challenging the idea that trade deals alone are to blame. Factories account for about 12 percent of the economy and services the remainder.
Service Economy
“That whole economic policy -- that we could be a services-oriented country and not make things anymore -- is a failed economic strategy, absolutely grossly failed,” he said. “The emphasis on services versus making things and building things has resulted in one economic bubble after another since the mid-90s,” including downturns in the savings and loan industry, technology, real estate and financial services.
And what about the discounts that American consumers have enjoyed via open channels for imports, including goods from China?
“We’ve become dependent on cheap goods,” said DiMicco. “We never can lose sight of the fact that every consumer must first be a producer so that they have the financial wherewithal to be a good consumer” and keep the economy in balance, he said.
Navarro and DiMicco, while not in regular contact with Trump himself, said they frequently provide feedback to the campaign. They also started relationships with the Republican presidential nominee in similar fashion: Each has written books that earned Trump’s praise.
“He called me up and said, ‘Hey, I’ve been a student of a screwed-up trade system for decades,’” said DiMicco.
But it doesn’t have to be that way, DiMicco says. In another challenge to conventional economics, the 40-year steel industry veteran argues that the traditional pattern of an economy graduating from one based on agriculture, to manufacturing and finally to services is flawed.