This Just In: The Death of American Manufacturing Has Been Indefinitely Postponed. Again.

According to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM.org):

• The U.S. is still the world's largest manufacturer, producing 21% of global manufactured products, the same share it held 30 years ago. China is second at 15%, and Japan third at 12%. The manufacturing sector is currently leading the U.S. economy for the first time since the 1970s.

• The number of U.S. manufacturing jobs may have fallen from 18 million to 12 million in the last ten years, but the remaining workers in U.S. plants and factories are twice as productive as those workers in the next ten leading manufacturing economies.

• Even with a third fewer workers, U.S. manufacturing produces $1.6 trillion of value on an annual basis. On its own, it would be the ninth largest economy in the world.

• Earnings of the S&P Industrials Index are projected by Bloomberg to grow 18.4% in 2012 vs. 14.9% for the S&P 500, yet at midyear 2011, the Industrial Index was selling at 12.6 times the 2012 earnings estimate.