U.S. Aiming to Ensure the 'Next Big Thing' Originates Here

America's economic problems are complex and they defy easy explanation. For years to come, we can argue about the precise role that over-aggressive lenders, over-leveraged homeowners and poor government regulation played in causing this historic recession. Or, we could spend our time more productively by rediscovering the traits that have long made America's economy the envy of the world. More

U.S. Auto Market Downturn Slows in July: Report

U.S. retail auto sales are expected to decline 19 percent in July from a year ago, marking an improvement over declines of more than 30 percent in the first half of 2009, an influential industry tracking service said. More

China Steel Protest Flares

A Hong Kong-based human-rights group said thousands of steel workers in China's industrial northeast staged an at-times violent protest against a planned takeover of their state-controlled employer and a group of them killed a top executive at the private company that was to acquire it. More

Boeing: Indian Market Recovering

India's aviation market has started to turn the corner and will come out of the recession faster than the rest of the world, Boeing said at the presentation of its 20-year India Market Outlook Wednesday in New Delhi. Forecasting sales of one aircraft fewer than the 1,001 units announced last year, now worth $100 billion, Dinesh Keskar, senior VP-sales and president-aircraft trading, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said Boeing 747 and larger aircraft do not have a role to play in India because the market is fragmenting at a fast pace. More

Obama Auto Advisor Tells Lawmakers Not to Undo Dealer Closings

The leader of President Obama's automotive task force warned members of Congress on Tuesday that reversing or stopping the closing of thousands of General Motors and Chrysler dealerships could threaten the automakers’ turnarounds and keep them from repaying billions in government loans. More

Why Not Make Turbines at Wind Farms?

Since wind turbines are so difficult to transport, why not manufacture them on site - at a wind farm? Clipper Windpower, a wind developer and manufacturer, is considering doing exactly that at a site in South Dakota. The company hopes to build a 5,000 megawatt wind farm (even bigger than the "world’s largest wind farm" that T. Boone Pickens once planned) in an area southeast of Pierre, the state capital. The farm alone would require 2,000 turbines - enough perhaps to justify, say, its own tower factory. More

Senator Wants Inspector General to Review Auto Dealer Closings

The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee asked the special inspector general of the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program on Friday to review the methodology of General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC's decisions to terminate more than 2,000 dealership franchises. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., in a letter to Neil Barofsky, the TARP inspector general, urged him to review closings. More

For GM, Big Dreams Depend on Small Cars

Can General Motors Co. build a first-rate small car in America and make money selling it? Forty years of history says no, but the automaker's fate -- and thousands of jobs at plants in Michigan and Ohio -- rests on its ability to end a litany of failures dating to the 1971 Chevrolet Vega. GM sold 2.8 million compact and smaller cars around the world in 2008. From China to Europe to Brazil, GM's Chevrolet and Opel small cars match the best from Honda, Toyota and Volkswagen. More