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What's missing at the White House manufacturing meeting

Dan Primack, author of Pro Rata

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

A group of 24 manufacturing CEOs is visiting the White House this morning, to work with VP Pence and various cabinet secretaries on policy ideas that will then be presented to President Trump. Per Sean Spicer during yesterday's press briefing, the working groups will cover: "Deregulation, tax and trade, training and the workforce of the future and infrastructure."

It seems like two big things are missing:

  1. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who is not among the participants. Instead, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will serve as cabinet rep on the "workforce of the future" group. Retraining of current working-age adults is clearly an important issue, but shouldn't there be equal (if not greater) concern about the next generation? And, if so, shouldn't the Ed Sec be present?
  2. Any explicit mention of automation. Perhaps this is in the "workforce of the future" session, but there are no technologists or futurists invited (let alone labor reps). Trump talks a lot about America's loss of manufacturing jobs, but never about how American manufacturing output is actually at an all-time high. Or, put another way, the invited CEOs are making more with fewer workers. Consider U.S. manufacturing to be like a tricycle: Taxes/trade policy and regulation are the two small wheels in the back. Integral, but not nearly so much as the big wheel (automation) in the front.

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U.K. first nation to clear Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for mass rollout

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The United Kingdom's government announced Wednesday it's approved Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, which "will be made available across the U.K. from next week."

Why it matters: The U.K. has beaten the U.S. to become the first Western country to give emergency approval for a vaccine against a virus that's killed nearly 1.5 million people globally.

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President Trump's 25% tariffs imposed on China under the phase one trade deal will remain in place at the start of the new administration, President-elect Biden said in an interview with the New York Times published early Wednesday.

Details: "I'm not going to make any immediate moves, and the same applies to the tariffs," Biden said. He plans to conduct a full review of the current U.S. policy on China and speak with key allies in Asia and Europe to "develop a coherent strategy," he said.

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Trump threatens to veto Defense spending bill over social media shield

Photo: Erin Schaff - Pool/Getty Images

President Trump tweeted Tuesday a threat to veto a must-pass end-of-year $740 billion bill defense-spending authorization bill unless Congress repeals a federal law that protects social media sites from legal liability.

Why it matters: Trump's attempt to get Congress to end the tech industry protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is the latest escalation in his war on tech giants over what he and some other Republicans perceive as bias against conservatives.

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