[lbo-talk] US manufacturing sector

[James Heartfield]

I found WB data on manufacturing value added going back to 1980, which I 
copied out of a report in the British Library. I put some of it (1980-1998) 
in this article in Critique (http://www.critiquejournal.net/jamesh35.pdf, 
page 37). It seems to back up Seth Ackerman, showing that the US did ok in 
that period, though I would have to dig up the original excel file to give 
you the numbers.


> I can't find anything like that in the WB's World Development
> Indicators database. Their data for value-added in mfg only begins in
> 1987 for the U.S., and later for other countries. I've seen similar
> claims that are based on real output rather than nominal, which is a
> dodgy proposition, given different national treatment of price
> indexes and changing industry mixes. Here are some WB stats on mfg
> share of GDP. The U.S. has fallen harder, starting from a lower
> level, than the other countries.
>
>                 1993      1996      2003    1993-2003   1996-2003
> Germany         23.6      22.2      22.3       -1.3        +0.1
> Japan                     23.3      21.0                   -2.4
> Sweden          18.8      21.5      19.7       +0.9        -1.8
> United States   18.4      18.2      14.6       -3.8        -3.6