Prior to President Obama’s announcement of his new economic team members on Friday, Jan. 7, several media outlets reported the anticipated appointment of Ron Bloom to a new, elevated White House position on manufacturing, with the inevitable shorthand of “manufacturing czar” being mentioned. Since then, the speculation has subsided.

Which is all for the good. Sometimes, personnel ISN’T policy, policy is policy.

In his current capacity as Senior Advisor to the Secretary for Auto Issues and Auto Task Force senior member — “czar” would be a shorter title, wouldn’t it? — Bloom spent part of last week at the Detroit Auto Show. He submitted a post at the Treasury Department’s blog, “Reflections from the Detroit Auto Show.”

Looking at the innovations premiered at this year’s show only confirmed my belief that in the next dozen years, the automobile industry will see more change than it has in the last 50 and that that change will encompass almost every aspect of what we think of today as the car business.

We don’t immediately find the full text of Bloom’s remarks. Here’s coverage:

• Detroit Free Press, “U.S. Treasury advisor: Detroit Three recovery can happen to all U.S. manufacturing“
• Detroit News, “Bloom reflects on $85 billion bailout“
• Detroit News, “Auto czar buys a Dodge, says Steve Rattner no Clooney“
• Associated Press, “Obama official encouraged by auto recovery“

Among the score of presidential nominations confirmed by the U.S. Senate Thursday was Nicole Y. Lamb-Hale to serve as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Manufacturing and Services within the International Trade Administration.

This is the post that in the past has occasionally been referred to as the Administration’s “manufacturing czar,” although that title now attaches itself to Ron Bloom, appointed by President Obama to serve as Senior Counselor for Manufacturing Policy.

Hale has already been serving in the U.S. Department of Commerce as Deputy General Counsel. As her bio states, Lamb-Hale was previously managing partner of the Detroit office of the law firm of Foley & Lardner LLP where she specialized in business restructuring in the manufacturing sector. She also served as vice-chair of the Board of Directors of the Michigan Land Bank Fast Track Authority, by appointment of Michigan Governor Jennifer M. Granholm, and as a member of the Board of Trustees of Leadership Detroit. She has also been a frequent speaker on business restructuring matters with particular emphasis in recent years on the automotive industry.

Lamb-Hale received her B.A. with high honors from the University of Michigan in 1988, and her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1991, where she was a classmate of President Obama’s.

Upon her nomination, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke said:

Our manufacturers and service providers have an excellent advocate in Ms. Lamb-Hale. Nicole has firsthand knowledge of the challenges that our industries face and will be able to serve the interests of industry at every level. Whether their needs are achieving greater competitiveness, advocating for policies that assist industry in competing abroad, or interacting with trade associations, I am confident that our domestic industry will benefit from her leadership.

Also confirmed Thursday in Commerce were Suresh Kumar, of New Jersey, to be Assistant Secretary
of Commerce and Director General of the United States and Foreign Commercial Service; David W. Mills, of Virginia, to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement; and Kevin Wolf, an Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration.

Congratulations to all.

I broadly view the role of Manufacturing and Services as three-fold: to convene, to collaborate and to connect.  If confirmed, under my leadership, Manufacturing and Services will convene experts both inside and outside of the federal government to develop solutions to the issues faced by U.S. industry.  Manufacturing and Services will also collaborate with Congress, with agencies across the federal government and with state and local governments to develop solutions to sustain and increase the global competitiveness of U.S. industry.  Further, Manufacturing and Services will work to connect industry to the resources and tools available in the federal government to forge a path to sustainable, highly-skilled jobs for the 21^st century economy.

Her full prepared statement is here.

Lamb-Hale is currently Deputy General Counsel at Commerce. Before joining the Obama Administration, she was managing partner of the Detroit office of the law firm of Foley & Lardner LLP where she specialized in business restructuring.

The committee has scheduled a vote on Lamb-Hale’s nomination for Thursday.

During the Bush Administration, the assistant secretary post in Commerce was often referred to as “the manufacturing czar.” That short-cut title has now been assumed by Ron Bloom, the President’s senior advisor for manufacturing policy, a former Steelworkers official and investment banker.

Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke spoke to members of the National Association of Manufacturers this morning, a general briefing and Q&A session that lasted nearly an hour. It was helpful to hear his and the Administration’s definition of economic recovery. Secretary Locke:

Because of the aggressive actions taken by the President and the Congress, as well as the resilience of the business community, we’ve stopped the economy from sliding into a second depression.

And as you know, a number of economic indicators have turned around since this summer, due in large part to the fiscal stimulus program and the repairs the administration has made to our banking and financial system.

But, by no means do I nor does anyone else in the Administration think that we’re out of the woods yet. We’ve made strides, but unfortunately our unemployment rate is still at an unacceptably high level and will probably stay at that rate, at least through 2010 and possibly even into 2011 despite the recent 3.5 [percent] increase in our GDP growth in the 3rd quarter.

The President does not believe that there is any real recovery until unemployment figures are back down to the pre-recession level, and until that happens, all these other leading indicators, while positive, while encouraging, do not in anyway mean that the job is done.

Other tidbits:

• Locke introduced the President’s nominee to serve as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Manufacturing and Services, Nicole Lamb-Hale.
• Ron Bloom, senior counselor to the president for manufacturing policy, is “on the verge” of presenting to the president a “strategic plan for helping the manufacturing sector.”
• The Department’s advisory board, the Manufacturing Council, recently recommended three programs to free up financing for manufacturing: a government-guaranteed loan program, a government-guaranteed accounts receivable sales program, and accounts receivable insurance program.

On trade, Secretary Locke reiterated the President’s comments supporting exports and trade agreements.

President Obama on Wednesday nominated Nicole Yvette Lamb-Hale, of Michigan, to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Manufacturing and Services within the International Trade Administration.

Commerce Secretary Locke issued a statement and news release on her nomination:

“Our manufacturers and service providers have an excellent advocate in Ms. Lamb-Hale,” said U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. “Nicole has firsthand knowledge of the challenges that our industries face and will be able to serve the interests of industry at every level. Whether their needs are achieving greater competitiveness, advocating for policies that assist industry in competing abroad, or interacting with trade associations, I am confident that our domestic industry will benefit from her leadership.”

Lamb-Hale currently serves as the Deputy General Counsel for the Department of Commerce. In this role, she assists the General Counsel as the chief legal officer for the Department and legal advisor to the Secretary.

Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Lamb-Hale was the Managing Partner of the Detroit office of the law firm of Foley & Lardner LLP where she specialized in business restructuring in the manufacturing sector. Lamb-Hale has been active in civic and community affairs throughout her career. Her involvement included serving as vice-chair of the Board of Directors of the Michigan Land Bank Fast Track Authority, by appointment of Michigan Governor Jennifer M. Granholm, and as a member of the Board of Trustees of Leadership Detroit. She has also been a frequent speaker on business restructuring matters with particular emphasis in recent years on the automotive industry.

Lamb-Hale received her B.A. with high honors from the University of Michigan in 1988, and her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1991.

The President earned his law degree from Harvard a year later.

In 2007, Crain’s Detroit Business honored Lamb-Hale, then at Foley & Lardner, as one of its “Most Influential Women.”

The White House has now posted the statement it distributed yesterday on the appointment of Ron Bloom to be the Administration’s Senior Counselor for Manufacturing Policy.

And here are President Obama’s remarks at the AFL-CIO picnic in Cincinnati.

With President Obama’s naming of Ron Bloom to be the senior White House counselor for manufacturing policy, the National Association of Manufacturers has this comment:

The NAM is pleased the Obama Administration will be appointing a manufacturing advisor to serve as a part of the National Economic Council. As our nation struggles to come out of our deepest economic recession and as the world’s largest manufacturing economy, it makes sense to have a senior policy position focused on manufacturing in the White House.

According to this Bloomberg report, President Obama issued a statement Sunday:

Ron has the knowledge and experience necessary to lead the way in creating the good-paying manufacturing jobs of the future. We must do more to harness the power of American ingenuity and productivity so that we can put people back to work and unleash our full economic potential.

UPDATE (4:20 p.m.): A roundup from The Hill, “Manufacturing czar expected to have more sway than others.”

In “Nuts-and-bolts advice for the new manufacturing czar,” The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s business columnist, John Torinus, previews Wednesday’s press briefing by Rockwell Automation’s CEO, Keith Nosbusch, who propose a comprehensive national manufacturing strategy. (Rockwell’s news release.)

Torinus discusses the possible appointment of Ron Bloom, the White House’s person in charge of the automotive restructuring, as a White House manufacturing czar; he names several manufacturing leaders he regards as more qualified than Bloom, a former investment banker and Steelworkers union executive.

Torinus then proposes policies to compromise a manufacturing policy.  The first four suggestions:

• Keep the pressure on the Chinese government to harden the yuan. Henry Paulson got it done in the Bush administration when the yuan rose about 20% against the dollar. That was a big help to U.S. exporters, the most important job and wealth creators for the country.
• Push for balanced trade on a bilateral basis with China, so their exports to the United States are better matched to their imports from the U.S. The gigantic trade imbalance with China is one of the biggest destabilizing forces on the U.S. economy. It has to be fixed.
• Understanding that the U.S. cannot sustain itself with a lopsided service economy – we have to make things, too – drop or eliminate the corporate tax on manufacturing. Other countries have dropped corporate taxes without triggering trade pact violations. If necessary, go to a value-added tax on goods as a replacement, a consumption tax on consumers.
• Promote Toyota-like lean disciplines across the whole manufacturing sector, much as Wisconsin government is attempting to do. Persuade union leaders to support lean disciplines and junk work rules that get in the way.

There’s a lot to like in his list for strengthening the manufacturing economy. You could add other items, to be sure, such as enacting tort reforms to bring the cost of the U.S. legal system in line with other leading manufacturing countries. In the process, speak out against the campaigns by the alliance of trial lawyers and “consumer activists” that ignore risk and demonize safe products and ingredients. (Since we’re reading the Journal-Sentinel, the campaign against BPA comes to mind.)

Torinus says the “manufacturing czar” strategy repeats the Bush Administration’s practice. Not quite. There the advocate was an Assistant Secretary of Manufacturing and Services in the Department of Commerce. Admittedly, that’s post has a much lower profile than a White House point person, but it does require the vetting and accountability that accompanies Senate confirmation.

Thanks to the Van Jones debacle, we’re about to see a new round of debate about the wisdom of manufacturing czars. On Fox News Sunday this morning, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), a member of the Republican leadership, responded to a question about the radical-cum-green-jobs czar by calling White House czars “an affront to the Constitution”: “When you take all these people that make policy close to the president and the White House … and aren’t approved by the Congress, you’re just adding fuel to the fire by those who think Washington is taking over everything.”

We imagine most manufacturers would welcome a strong advocate in the White House to promote U.S. industry. Still, czars, prelates or factotums aside, most important are the policies the Administration and Congress pursue. First, as NAM President John Engler likes to say, “Do no harm.” And after that, there’s a lot of good substance in Torinus’ list, and we look forward with interest to the Rockwell briefing.

The old political saw is that personnel is policy. Sure. But in the case of the manufacturing economy, the primary strategy should be to have policy be policy. Good policy being good policy, that is.

Too many czars. In the interest of effective communication we suggest alternative terms that better represent the duties and authorities of political appointees who coordinate policy outside the Executive Branch agencies.  We look to history…

From Bartleby Online, Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.

POTENTATE; liege, – lord; suzerain, overlord, overking, sovereign, monarch, autocrat, despot, tyrant, oligarch.
crowned head, emperor, king, anointed king, majesty, imperator, protector, president, stadholder or stadtholder, judge.
cæsar, kaiser, czar or tsar, sultan, soldan [obs.], grand Turk, caliph, imamor imaum, shah, padishah, sophi, mogul, great mogul, khan, lama, pendragon, tycoon, mikado, inca, cazique; voivode or waywode, hospodar, landamman; sayid or sayyid, cacique, czarevitch, grand seignior.
prince, duke (nobility) [See Nobility]; archduke, doge, elector; seignior; landgrave, margrave; maharajah, rajah, emir, nizam, nawab (Indian ruling chiefs) [See Nobility].
empress, queen, sultana, czarina or tsarina, princess, infanta, duchess, margravine; czarevna or tsarevna, czarina; maharani, rani [both Hindu], begum [Moham.]; rectoress orrectress, rectrix.

The Margrave of Manufacturing!

An editorial, “More Bloomin’ Czars”

The question naturally arises: Do we really need a factory guru, especially one whose expertise is in advising labor unions — the cause of much of the U.S. steel and car industries’ woes?

The obvious answer is no. This is just another attempt to revive the long-discredited idea of industrial policy — the notion that markets are inefficient and unfair, and the economy can best be managed by government “experts.”

Most manufacturers, we’d contend, would welcome a federal focus on manufacturing competitiveness. But an industrial policy that picks winners also picks losers.

Which, we see, is also what the the Heritage Foundation worries about. From “Auto Czar to Become Manufacturing Czar?“

Yet another Obama Administration czar? Don’t expect the White House to use the dreaded “C” word, but that seems to be the plan. By itself, of course, that’s no bad thing — after all even George Bush had a “manufacturing czar” within his Commerce Department. And there are plenty of positive steps that can be taken to ease burdens on manufacturers. In 2005, in fact, OMB published a list of regulatory changes that could help.

Unfortunately, the Obama Administration — having just nationalized General Motors — seems to have quite different policies in mind. According to Bloomberg, the new position may be a response by the White House to calls for a full-blown national industrial policy for manufacturing. In recent congressional testimony, Obama advisor and former cable executive Leo Hindery starkly described the elements of such a strategy: government picking winners and losers among products and firms, government spending to support industry, and trade protectionism.