I'm delighted to be the first to review this brilliant book. I wish someone would champion Jack Buffington as an economic adviser to the President. He has real-world business experience with the issues he addresses in this volume, and is exceptionally clear-headed about our problems.So what are our problems? Why is this book pertinent? We are seeing our manufacturing move overseas, and our wages plummet. Our job base is vanishing. What to do? Buffington has the view that we cannot ignore manufacturing. So his book is not another siren call of the weightless economy, nor does he encourage a protectionist view. Buffington encourages detailed business process understanding, a closer look at the effects of accounting regulation, education improvements, and more.He believes that corporations do not conceptualize productivity correctly, instead indulging in short-term thinking. They outsource labor rather than undertake complex process improvements. Offshoring and outsourcing save less than often believed, and occasion new problems. `Chindia' is rapidly escaping from the dead-end of cheap labor: they are growing in knowledge and high-tech sectors, with a resulting `gravitational pull'. Outsourcing will become our dead end: we must innovate, and create a business-friendly competitive environment, so that America will be a commercial home to great companies.Buffington reviews how consultants, outsourcing providers (HR, data processing, etc.), offshore providers, temporary labor providers, corporate execs, and politicians all contribute to the poor climate.He looks at how accounting rules are adversely affecting our economy: complex regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley discourage foreign investment, encourage outsourcing, and encourage emphasis on short-term stock price both within and outside of companies.Net capital inflow into the US is not translating into infrastructural improvement, but does give increasing power to foreigners over our economy.The government may not have a clear grasp of GDP statistics. Bad statistics cause confusion for economic analysis.Buffington goes into a lot of details about what happens when companies try to behave more thoughtfully about solving their productivity problems.He mentions the problem of unions desperately seeking high wages without regard to the competitive climate, and how this further pushes managers toward the 'easy out'.Buffington addresses our cultural shortcomings as key to understanding the risks of decline that we face. He has useful suggestions for infrastructure and education. For example, he suggests inner cities as manufacturing centers. And why not? A whole host of cultural and transportation problems would be avoided.My impression, as citizen and reader, is that our problems are mostly self-inflicted. We are drowning in socialism and government interference, and have forgotten our values: limited and divided government, living by our means, accepting a strong work ethic. Buffington's book is refreshing in that it charts a course for the future that makes no recourse to protectionism. I simply cannot understand why Jack Buffington is not more visibly engaged. He needs a better promoter! This book is a must-own, must-read title. Also, check the Google video site for a 76-minute presentation by Buffington.