Paul Krugman's e-letter today discusses global value chains and a more modern "industrial policy" in the context of the once forecasted superiority of Japan in the late 1980s, their later economic stagnation--although he points out that weighted for demographics, Japan's manufacturing production is comparable to that of the US--Trump policies, Biden policies, etc.
He mentions a report by the World Bank, World Development Report 2020: Trading for Development in the Age of Global Value Chains, and how it uses bicycle manufacturing as a way to illustrate global production chains.
When I was involved in bidding for bike sharing programs c. 2010-2012, this was an issue. Many of the programs used federal money, and the American Recovery and Reconstruction Act required "Buy American" when it came to steel products. Given that bicycles aren't manufactured in volume in the US any more, this was an impossible provision to meet.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/02/business/shopping-bike-leaves-some-spinning-their-wheels/
ReplyDeleteSame as the 'gas crisis' of 1973 (new bike sales doubled in the US that year); watch for lotsa excess, very-slightly-used bikes showing up on ebay & craigslist next year...
ReplyDeleteI don't think/can't remember if Carlton Reid's book on the peak of bike sales mentioned the gas crisis. He attributed it to the peak of the baby boom.
ReplyDeleteI did find an old Washington Post article from that time about a flight attendant who biked to work at National Airport and the relatively new Mount Vernon Trail.
I know there was lots of coverage last year about bike sales, but here in Salt Lake I didn't see much evidence of an increase in transportational cycling as opposed to recreational cycling.
Wrt 1973 I was 13, and didn't get my nicer Raleigh til I was 14 or 15.