Made in USA used to be some sort of guarantee in quality but those days are gone and even the head of the states is now imported.
Aye USA Industrial Manfufacturing has taken a nose dive in my lifetime and before. However there's not too much any President could have done about that. The American economy, and much of the world economy is very much dependant on globalization and global trade. Plus even though the US government has lots of power in the business realm, gotta remember the majority control of the American Economy rests on the Merchant Class and America has a strong tradition of Entreprenuerial Freedom. In a sense all the corporations and busineses are like little empires within empires. If you don't swim you sink in the realm of commerce. As much as I would love America to have its mighty industrial engine like it did in the early days of the 20th Century Ancients, fact is that industrialism is obsolete in my time and today global trade is responsible for the widespread variety of goods, significant price reduction, and tremendous global growth of wealth across the planet. Furthermore the economic policy of globalization is in fact the main driving force of the America economy. Ironically if we went back to old protectionist industrialism our economy would collapse severely and put millions into dire poverty across America and the world.
America still is a pretty big maker of things though by the way, its just most our manufacturing revolves around making equipment and other capital goods for other businesses domestic and abroad and also we have a big focus on financial services. From last stats I saw we were still #2 Exporter which indicates America is still a pretty mighty maker of quality goods. However we are #1 Importer because since the 1980s (one might give Reagan credit for this rather than Carter) we now buy a tremendous amount of goods across Earth, mostly from East Asia and North America ever since Deng Xiaoping opened up China to global trade, specifically with America (a good move for his people too as since then China has grown rapidly into a first class empire economically, politically, culturally, and militarily.) The other big event being the expansion of NAFTA. This carries its own pros and cons. On the Pro side this means we are #1 buyer in the world and thus as such get to dictate many economic agreements and hold soft power over many lands. On the Cons side our trade defecit has been a major loss of revenue for the past decade thus restricting our own domestic power.
So I'd say economics is quite interesting thing to study, especially in today's world with Globalization (I like to pet name it Marco Polo-nomics). It is true there are many challenges for America and many other countries, but at the same time I feel like we've made great progress as a civilization on this specific realm.
To return to fundamentals and fundamentalism the business realm is a good example of where strong Christian ethics are required. Shoddy ethics and fundamentals = bad business = economic catastrophe. Good strong ethics and fundamentals = good business = economic growth. It's just that simple, and by good Christian ethics I'm not talking about prosperity gospel bullcrap. What I mean is simply, in business realm much comes down moreso to your word than to your wallet. If you treat your employees well, keep your agreements, and have a lil savvy you will almost always succeed in your enterprise even if you aren't turning multi-million dollar profits. If you are greedy stealing from your own business or care only about the money to the point you neglect your business, treat your employees and customers terribly, etc. then it only stands to reason your business will fail eventually or be out-competed.
Just some thoughts on world economics in relation to history, politics, the current age, and ethics/fundamentals. I do agree with you that the reputation for famous American Quality has been sullied in the past few decades (I moreso fault the love-of-money business culture rather than the Government), but I also think there's still some good players out there and also this is an issue that can actually be tackled and fixed in my lifetime. Either way good topic for ponderance indeed, so I am glad to see your opinion and respond with my own and it is a good topic you bring forward.