Khanna - Entrepreneurial Nation: Why Manufacturing is Still Key to Americas Future

PRAISE FOR Entrepreneurial Nation: Why Manufacturing is Key to America's Future

Ro Khanna clearly loves his subject, and has written a wonderfully readable book about Americas industrial and technological base. It is a detailed microeconomic look at the considerable strengths and challenges in the tradable part of the U.S. economy. Policy targeted to employment always involves a subtle balance between respecting powerful global market forces on the one hand and identifying investment opportunities and removing self-inflicted handicaps on the other. On this dimension, the book is terrific;full of practical insights that could inform a collaboration between business and government to expand the economys employment and growth engines, at a time when we need it.

MICHAEL SPENCE, Nobel Laureate in Economics (2001)

This is a captivating book that adds to the growing discourse on the relevance of American ingenuity and our manufacturing heritage. The real life experiences of U.S. manufacturing firms, many of which we do business with every day, shed a light on how we really get things done. America is about making stuff but we do it with great care for our customers and a focus on how we can do more to improve peoples lives through collective innovation. It is a collection of captivating stories and real ideas on how to keep America competitive in the 21st Century.

ELLEN KULLMAN, Chair & CEO, DuPont
one of Americas original manufacturing companies

Entrepreneurial Nation: Why Manufacturing is Key to America's Future is an excellent reminder of what makes American manufacturing great. Our culture of innovation has created our industrial base and is now threatened on many fronts. Ro examines the many facets of this problem and proposes specific remediessome controversial and others less sothat are intended to put us back on the track of an expanding industrial base. There is something for everyone in this book in that it brings to the surface many facts that are important but have been masked. For example, why the WTO rules penalize U.S. exporting firms operating under our corporate taxation system. An important read for anyone interested in impacting our manufacturing future.

PAUL OTELLINI, President and CEO, Intel Corporation

Ro Khanna takes on the sages who predict an inevitable demise of making things in America. He lays out a refreshing vision of innovation-based U.S. manufacturing leadership, not just competitiveness. Entrepreneurial Nation: Why Manufacturing is Key to America's Future is based on the views and experiences of real manufacturers making real products in America. It prescribes a hefty dose of federal policy changes to empower private-sector innovation in manufacturing. This is a very important addition to a very important debate.

CHARLES VEST,
President Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and President
of the National Academy of Engineering

Ro Khanna led Commerces domestic offices that implemented President Obamas National Export Initiative. He was a key player in the policy debate in Washington, and he was in the trenches listening to the perspective of manufacturers across our country. It shows. His book provides a powerful vision of what American companies need to do to thrive and grow in the world market.

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, Chairman of the Council of
Economic Advisors (20102011), President Barack Obama

I have always believed that America remains the greatest superpower of innovation. Khanna is a leading thinker on how to make U.S. manufacturing more competitive across this country, whether it comes to making high-technology planes, cars, steel bars, fire suits, or even blenders. The unconventional ideas in this book chart the path America can take to lead the world for years to come.

ELON MUSK, CEO and Founder of Tesla and SpaceX

Khanna raises the most important question facing the United States todayCan American manufacturing survive? The heroes extolled in his tales are indeed inspiring, but even they will need the help of all the policy changes he recommends and more to stay alive and thrive.

CLYDE PRESTOWITZ, Bestselling Author of
Trading Places, Three Billion New Capitalists, and
The Betrayal of American Prosperity

Ro Khanna has firsthand experience with our nations manufacturing economy, and he knows what it will take for us to succeed in the 21st century. Entrepreneurial Nation: Why Manufacturing is Key to America's Future provides a candid assessment of the challenges manufacturers face from currency manipulation and a rigged trading regime. Khanna draws on the voices of real workers, union leaders, and manufacturers to provide a compelling vision of how to grow our industrial base and create jobs here at home for the middle class.

RICHARD L. TRUMKA, President, AFL-CIO

Entrepeneurial Nation takes you to the front lines of the fight to revive our economic fortunes and get manufacturing moving again. Over the last three years, Ro Khanna has travelled across the length and breadth of this country, from Pittsfield, New Hampshire, to Witchita, Kanasas, from San Jose, California, to Seminole, Oklahoma. He has met and talked to manufacturers of every stripe, makers of batteries and blenders, of fire suits and food processors, aerospace parts and drilling rigs. This is a book about their remarkable successes, the challenges they have surmounted and the issues they confront. It is a vivid portrait of the most dynamic force in the U.S. economy, its entrepreneurs. In the process Ro Khanna offers a compelling vision of our economic potential.

LIAQUAT AHAMED, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Lords of Finance

This is the book I would have written if I was not currently managing a streetcar manufacturing company. Excellent statistics and a fair and balanced approach to the emerging issues of todays manufacturing policies (or lack thereof). I agree with Entrepreneurial Nation: Why Manufacturing is Key to America's Future that we must defend our vital manufacturing base. Its message is timely, thorough, and engaging and a must read for those of us who know that manufacturing is critical to the very future of our great nation.

CHANDRA BROWN, President, United Streetcar

This is important reading for all interested in the nature and strength of the United States economy in the 21st century. Khanna uses the experiences of fifteen successful manufacturing companies to address several fundamental questions: How can we compete successfully with low-wage countries? What type of manufacturing sector is necessary to maintain leadership in the development of new technologies? What is the appropriate role for government in these matters? What are our educational needs if we are to compete for high-value jobs? Anyone who reads this book will have a better understanding of the United States economy and the actions that will shape its future.

HUGO SONNENSCHEIN, President Emeritus and
Adam Smith Distinguished Service Professor of
Economics, The University of Chicago

The stories in this book inspire and, for me, really touched a nerve. They remind you about Americas underlying resilience and leave you more confident about our economic future. The book captures the essence of what makes American manufacturers exceptional.

RON BLOOM, former Chair of the Presidents Auto Task Force;
former Assistant to the President for Manufacturing Policy.

For anyone interested in building a stronger economy through rebuilding manufacturing, read this book!