Jet Development in China creating Jobs in Michigan

NPR MI Radio

A new commercial jet being developed in China is creating jobs in Michigan.

The C919 is being developed by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, or Comac. The plane could be a big step forward for the aviation industry in China, and a possible competitor to Boeing and Airbus.

But to make it happen, Comac is relying on a number of joint ventures with American companies, and that includes the aviation division of GE, which is headquartered in Grand Rapids.

George Kiefer heads up GE Aviation's Grand Rapids office. He says about 200 engineers are being recruited to work on the C919.

"We're actually recruiting some locally," he says of the hiring process. "And we're also going internationally to hire, to China, as well as the UK and then throughout the United States."

Kiefer says many of the engineers will work in Grand Rapids. But some are also being sent to China, and some to Clearwater, Florida.

Turn Out the Lights

Associated Press

In two years, U.S. consumers will get a rude shock when the federal government's ban on traditional incandescent light bulbs goes into effect. But industrial communities in the Midwest and elsewhere are already feeling pain as light-bulb manufacturer General Electric shuts down plants and moves jobs to China in preparation for production of Washington's preferred alternative: expensive compact fluorescent bulbs.

The shutdowns are happening in industrial areas already hammered by the Great Recession. General Electric shut down its Niles, Ohio light bulb plant in April, throwing 110 union laborers out of work. Two similar plants in Lexington, Kentucky (union) and Winchester, Virginia (non-union) are also slated to close this year at a combined cost of over 300 jobs.

"Government did us in," Winchester worker Dwayne Madigan told The Washington Examiner. He made bulbs that became a symbol of the global warming crisis -- a crisis that has been exposed as a fraud after a year of Climategate and a decade of flat temperatures. But the regulations march on, leaving jobs in their wake.

"Market decline for incandescent types of bulbs has accelerated with governments around the world setting new standards for efficiency," said Roy Wilson, general manager of GE's North America Lighting Manufacturing. GE lobbied for the bulb ban and will ship jobs offshore to make new compact fluorescents

Washington Democrats have long argued that green is the color of new jobs. In fact, green is red as low cost Red China will be the beneficiary of the new laws.

The federal mandate at issue was passed as part of the 2007 energy bill requiring all bulbs - beginning in 2012 - to meet high efficiency standards. Rather than create jobs, the mandate has accelerated GE's plans to shutter older factories and move them offshore even as industrial America struggles to emerge from recession. In Ohio, the unemployment rate is an above-national-average 11 percent.

For the law's supporters, the clear connection between green mandates and exported jobs is a problem.

In Niles, Ohio, a spokeswoman for Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat, says the congressman supports the regulations even though they have cost local jobs. She says Ryan supports "efficiency and green measures that encourage sustainability" that will eventually bring new jobs. She sites some new windmill startups in the area, but they are -- like other green technologies -- entirely dependent on government subsidies.

The GE plant made a popular consumer product with a sustainable, profitable business model. Until the government outlawed it.

The alliance of Big Government and Big Industry sending jobs to China is not lost on workers at the Winchester plant. Why did GE, founded by Thomas Edison, support a bill that killed the traditional bulb? It burnishes the company's "green" image ("eco-magination" is GE's initiativve) but it also allows them to charge more for bulbs, save on labor, and take advantage of China's lower regulatory burdens given the problem of fluorescents decidedly un-green use of mercury. The Times of London repots that "large numbers of Chinese workers have been poisoned by mercury, which forms part of the compact fluorescent light bulbs."

The lost jobs are more evidence that Democrats have betrayed their core labor constituency. "I live paycheck to paycheck," one soon-to-be-jobless Winchester employee told The Examiner.

These workers are victims of the Green Revolution - a revolution their employer and their government are forcing into American homes.

Henry Payne is editor of The Michigan View

Business Briefs

The Detroit News

Midland -- Dow Chemical Co., the largest U.S. chemical maker, reported Wednesday that its first-quarter profit surged more than fivefold to $718 million from a year earlier.

First-quarter net income rose to $551 million, or 41 cents a share, from $24 million, or 3 cents, compared with a year ago, Dow said.

"This quarter was indeed a pivotal point in giving the world a glimpse of our earnings' power," Dow CEO Andrew Liveris said in a conference call.

Federal-Mogul sales surge 20 percent

Auto parts supplier Federal-Mogul Corp. posted a $17 million first-quarter profit as sales surged 20 percent.

Net income was 15 cents a share, compared with a loss of $101 million, or $1.02, a year earlier, the Southfield-based company said Wednesday. The per-share results, excluding a charge for a Venezuelan currency devaluation of 35 cents, beat the 22-cent average of three analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Sales rose to $1.49 billion, benefiting from improved demand worldwide.

Mitsubishi, Peugeot reach SUV deal

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and PSA Peugeot Citroën announced Wednesday that they have come to an agreement to collaborate on a compact SUV.

These new compact SUVs will have specific designs for Peugeot and Citroën while sharing many components with the Mitsubishi vehicle, named RVR in Japan and ASX in Europe.

Obama to appoint Yellen to Fed board

President Barack Obama today will name Janet Yellen as vice chairwoman of the Fed board of governors, according to two people familiar with the decision.

Obama also will name Sarah Bloom Raskin, Maryland's commissioner of financial regulation, and Peter Diamond, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for the two remaining open seats on the seven-person board, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity before the announcement.

The nominations are subject to Senate confirmation.

Fed vows to hold line on rates for 'extended' period

Washington -- The Federal Reserve in a 9-1 decision Wednesday retained its pledge to hold rates at historic lows for an "extended period." Doing so will help energize the recovery.

GE glimpses light after conglomerate's cloudy year

Houston -- General Electric says the broader economy and its own business have stabilized, and that the "clouds are breaking" after one of the worst years ever for the conglomerate. The company, at its annual meeting in Houston, is telling investors that key economic indicators like housing and unemployment have stabilized, and that capital markets are improving. General Electric Co . says losses have peaked in its GE Capital lending unit and that the division should return to profit growth soon. GE Capital was the source of many of the company's problems last year, hit by the downturn in areas like credit cards, mortgages and commercial real estate.

Google's brand value of $114B tops global list

Google Inc . topped the 2010 BrandZ ranking of the 100 most valuable global brands by Millward Brown Optimor, with an estimated brand value of $114 billion. International Business Machines Corp . and Apple Inc . advanced to second and third place from fourth and sixth last year. Research In Motion Ltd .'s BlackBerry moved two spots to 14th place. Technology companies accounted for 6 of the top 10 brands. Apple, Hewlett-Packard Co ., Amazon .com Inc ., Verizon Communications Inc . and Baidu Inc . all gained more than 25 percent in brand value.