[Shengster]

I agree that forcing Beijing to raise the value of the Yuan is not going to end all our financial woes (as suggested by some politicians) and turn America back into a manufacturing powerhouse. Many companies (recently Nokia) have been moving their factories to Vietnam as wages there are lower than even China.

In a recent interview between Marc Benioff (salesforce.com's CEO) and Eric Schmidt (former CEO of Google), Eric said that oftentimes outsourcing is not just because of cheap labor, but rather because America doesn't have the infrastructure or skills necessary to perform the kind of manufacturing necessary in high tech industries (think printed circuit boards, which are done exclusively in Asia nowadays).

Given America's emphasis on education (or lack thereof), I don't see this changing anytime in the near future. Troubling news indeed.