BUSINESS - Made in America?

IMHO:  You cannot trust Trump to actually do what he says.  He does spin, and sometimes lies, about what he was responsible for.  Like brokering a huge $give-away to keep '800' Carrier jobs in the U.S. but ignore the other plant still being moved to Mexico.  Then ignoring that some of the '800' jobs 'saved' were not scheduled to move in the first place.  And pay attention on the ACTUAL reason for Ford's decision.

"How Trump offers a mixture of incentive and shame for business leaders" PBS NewsHour 1/3/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Ford announced Tuesday it's scrapping plans to build a $1.6 billion plant in Mexico and will instead invest $700 million into an existing Michigan plant, and hire 700 workers in the U.S.  Though it's a drop in the bucket in terms of the American economy, it's symbolically significant.  William Brangham speaks with Josh Boak of the Associate Press about whether President-elect Donald Trump can take any credit.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Today's announcement by the Ford Motor Company that it would add 700 more jobs at a Michigan plant came after it became one of a number of companies squarely in the eye of President-elect Trump.

William Brangham follows up on what's behind this move and others like it.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM (NewsHour):  The Ford announcement follows moves from several other companies saying they too might keep some jobs in the U.S. that were planned for Mexico or elsewhere.

The president-elect has repeatedly tweeted about some of these companies, including Ford, and pressing them to keep jobs in the U.S.

Ford said today that it didn't consult with Mr. Trump on their Michigan decision.

Josh Boak has been covering the story for the Associated Press.  And he joins me now.

So, Josh, bring us up to speed.  What did Ford agree to do today?

JOSH BOAK, Associated Press:  Ford announced that it wasn't going to build a $1.6 billion plant in Mexico.

There were a few reasons for that, one of which was that the plant was going to build Ford Focuses.  And sales of that car have dipped as oil prices have fallen.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:  This is a little, small, fuel-efficient vehicle.

JOSH BOAK:  Exactly.

But the other major impact has been Donald Trump on Twitter talking about companies and what he wants to see them do, and those two seem to have combined together.  Ford's own CEO said he hoped that Trump's policies on deregulation and taxes would be good for the company and good for the country.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:  As we mentioned before, this follows moves where Trump has targeted other companies, Carrier, Boeing, Lockheed Martin.  And companies have shifted their positions based according to what Mr. Trump seems to be saying.

Overall, how many jobs are we talking about here that are going to be staying in the U.S.?

JOSH BOAK:  Well, as far as Ford's announcement today, they're looking to hire 700 workers starting in 2018.

When we look at Carrier, that's 800 jobs.  When we look last week at Sprint, that's 5,000 jobs.  OneWeb, that's 3,000 jobs.  Now, that sounds like a lot in an individual announcement, but the U.S. economy is massive.  It added 2.25 million jobs last year alone.  That's so great, that this is really a drop in the bucket in the big picture.

But it's massive symbolically.  We can't forget that part of economics is psychology and the animal spirits, and Trump is really stirring them right now.