Begin with a glittering silver chrysanthemum, 1,000 feet wide, exploding over the Washington Monument on the Fourth of July. Proceed to Boston, where, with each cymbal crash of the "American Symphony," the pistils of giant red flowers strobe 1,000 feet above the Charles River. Take your pick of...

U.S. firms are facing tough international competition, and the U.S. trade deficit has grown to a level that some find alarming. Why doesn't the United States respond by easing monetary policy to lower the dollar's exchange rate and reduce the price of U.S. goods in foreign markets? This...

An argument that the economic importance of manufacturing, although commonly thought to be declining, has remained relatively strong because of manufacturing's linkages with growth in other sectors of the economy.

In the last 50 years, the share of employment in manufacturing has declined in the United States. The main reason for this phenomenon is labor-saving technological progress. Variation among state tax polices and international economic conditions have played only minor roles. The source of future...