More Evidence That Obama Has Absolutely No Idea How The U.S. Economy Actually Works!

Remember when Obama asked Steve Jobs how to get Apple's overseas suppliers to bring jobs back to the U.S.?  (If not, read this rant back a few issues.)

Anyway, last week's Economist has an article on Boeing, the absolutely perfect example of a U.S. manufacturer.  Boeing's supply chain looks even more complicated than Apple's.

 
"The head of Boeing’s commercial-airliner division, Jim Albaugh, admits that with hindsight too much of the Dreamliner programme was contracted out to other firms. Some work has been brought back in-house so that it can be more closely supervised. The planemaker has also set up a “war room” that constantly monitors the world’s supply of aircraft parts and raw materials. It has signed a long-term deal with a Russian metals firm to ensure a steady supply of crucial components made from titanium. And it has hired hundreds of “examiners” to visit suppliers, to check that they are building up production to meet Boeing’s increasing needs and chivvy them along if not.

Boeing’s assembly plants are the final stage in a long and hugely complex global supply chain. It has about 1,200 “tier-one” suppliers, which provide parts directly to the planemaker from 5,400 factories in 40 countries. These in turn are fed by thousands more “tier-two” suppliers, which themselves receive parts from countless others. Beverly Wyse, who oversees production of the 737, admits that it has sometimes been a job to persuade all these suppliers to invest enough to meet future demand. To do so, Boeing has had to learn to be more open with them about its production plans, and a bit less paranoid about whether such information might reach the ears of its competitors."