It is becoming increasingly recognized that it's high time that, as a nation, we shift our attention back to making things here. 

Howard Wial writes in the Atlantic about just how to go about doing so saying, "After three decades of manufacturing job loss, it's becoming fashionable once again to advocate for an American economy that makes more things and fewer exotic financial instruments.  But we must be clear about why this would be a good thing and what kinds of public policies could help us get there."

Wial suggests a four-fold federal and state policy plan outside of amending our trade policies (which need quite a bit of tweaking, to say the least):

1. Fund advanced manufacturing centers that conduct research on engineering problems and help manufacturers apply solutions.
2. Offer competitive grants to self-organized groups of manufacturers and related organizations, such as colleges and unions.
3. Expand and modernize the federal-state Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) which helps small and medium sized manufacturers become more productive.
4. Only assist manufacturers that have, or are following a realistic plan to achieve, reasonably high productivity, pay and benefits given their industry and location.

Read more on how to grow U.S. manufacturing.