Two recent items on the economy struck home in the past few days. One, the United States no longer is the world’s major goods producer. Our nation has now been eclipsed by China, which ended the United States’ 110-year run as the largest goods producer.

The response by the U.S. Council on Competitiveness to this little-reported shift is as wrongheaded as it is dangerous. Said Deborah Wince-Smith, chief executive of the business lobby:

This shows the need for the U.S. to compete in the future not on the basis of commodity manufacturing but on innovation and new kinds of services that are driven by production industries.

Actually, it doesn’t work that way. Manufacturing goods leads to research and development—R&D doesn’t happen in a vacuum. That’s one big reason manufacturing is still so important in a 21st century economy.

Meanwhile, former House Speaker and President-wannabe Newt Gingrich said this week that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) worked because it created jobs—in Mexico and Canada.

And these people are supposedly representing the interests of the United States?