Industry topic
American industry
What America is good at, where we direct our ingenuity, and the people who turn industrial capability into a working business. Four essays on productive capacity, investment, sales and ownership.
Read the essays as one operating question
The four essays approach a shared question from different directions: what lets American capability become a durable business? Strengths identify a foundation to build on. Investment priorities ask which problems receive sustained attention. The sales essays follow the people and decision rights needed to connect that work to customers.
Together they make a demanding argument for industrial leadership. A good proposal should identify both the capability it would create and the commercial path that could sustain it. Neither a patriotic label nor a promising product removes the need to explain the other half.
Articles
What American industry is good at
A case for building on American capability in aircraft engines, instruments, specialized machinery, energy, and the practical work of integration and service.
What we choose to build: Instagram and American industry
The case for directing more talent and capital toward machines, manufacturing and industrial problems, with software serving productive capability.
The salesman is not one job
Why industrial sales includes distinct commercial, technical and leadership responsibilities—and why those differences deserve recognition.
Who owns the business behind the American salesman?
How local sales relationships and market knowledge can remain in place while industrial ownership changes—and what that means for American capability.
Opinion and analysis by David Schweickart, developed from his industry notes. Each article links to the public evidence behind its factual claims.
Related reporting: The supply chain inside an American drill rig · The American commercial layer · U.S. v. Danfoss and Eaton.