Kotkin Primer: Part 5 of 5

The columnist is on vacation and advanced posted five days worth of columns where author Joel Kotkin writes about manufacturing and other Ohio-relevant topics.  It's all a primer leading up to Kotkin's visit to the Buckeye State in August as part of the Licking County Chamber of Commerce's Annual Dinner and a Licking County Workforce Summit.  Enjoy.

Joel Kotkin is described as a futurist.  Of course, what would a futurist be without being able to look back and say he was right about the future he once predicted.

Kotkin's NewGeography.com piece "We Must Remember Manufacturing" was written in April 2009 just as the new "stimulus" package was unveiled.  It might as well had been written in 2011 for its predictions on manufacturing's rebirth that were right on.

This conclusion statement was illustrative, perhaps predictive, of a new manufacturing policy emerging from the Obama Administration in recent months.  Kotkin wrote:

"President Obama should recognize that expanding industry presents some of our best chances for future growth. Once the world recovers from the current financial crisis, there will be another surge in demand, particularly from developing countries, for the basic products that the U.S. can produce at prodigious levels, such as foodstuffs and airplanes, as well as farm, energy and construction equipment. The strategic opening for American firms may indeed be greater than any other time since the years after World War II."

Licking County resembles that remark today.

I expect we'll hear something about this in August too.  Or so I hope.

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See the other four primers:  #4 of 5, #3 of 5, #2 of 5, and #1 of 5.