Surveys show Trump’s election is damaging America’s reputation abroad, which research suggests could deal a sharp blow to US trade.
Heavy gray smog blankets northeastern China, including Beijing and Tianjin, on Dec. 18, 2016 during a five-day air pollution ‘red alert.’
NASA Earth Observatory
New research shows that importing goods from low-wage countries has helped US manufacturers shift production to less-polluting industries, produce less waste and spend less on pollution control.
South Australia’s Holden plant at Elizabeth will close permanently in late 2017.
GM Corp/AAP
The need to connect African markets to aid development will once again be discussed at the World Economic Forum. The debate needs to move beyond the usual rhetoric.
Plant worker at Gorham Paper & Tissue, Gorham, New Hampshire, 2015.
Erikabarker/Wikipedia
Gary M. Scott, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Pulp and paper production is a major industry with a large environmental footprint. Recently, though, paper companies have worked to reduce pollution and promote sustainable forestry and recycling.
Technology can help workers in many ways.
Romero, Stahre, Wuest, et al.
Thorsten Wuest, West Virginia University; David Romero, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, and Johan Stahre, Chalmers University of Technology
People will still be needed on factory floors, even as robots become more common. Future operators will have technical support and be super-strong, super-smart and constantly connected.
Manufacturing is expanding around the world
Julian Smith/AAP
Today, the U.S. is leading the robotics revolution. But without timely investment, China will overtake us, and could permanently put Americans out of work.
US President Donald Trump argues manufacturing jobs are being lost to imports and multilateral trade agreements.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
A border adjustment tax would raise government revenue and boost jobs in export-driven industries, which tend to concentrate in the embattled manufacturing sector.
South Africa’s economy was built on strong mining activity which has declined in recent years.
REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
Objects of almost any shape or geometry can be produced by 3D printing. The technology could seriously disrupt not just manufacturing but related national plans for economic development.
At one time, Bibles and Sears catalogs were printed here. Now, this building is known as the Lakeside Technology Center, one of the largest data centers in the world.
Teemu008/flicker
Data centers are taking over the factories where workers once processed checks, baked bread and printed Bibles. What will the rise of the information-based economy mean for American cities?
2016 was a year of mixed fortunes in the development course of Africa.
Shutterstock
Trump wouldn’t be the first occupant of the Oval Office to try to bend companies to his will to achieve an objective, be it economic or merely political. JFK tried it with U.S. Steel in 1962.
Incoming Director of the Australian Institute of Business and Economics at UQ, and Professor of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, Macquarie University