Canada's disappearing middle: Where did all the mid-sized companies go?

Guest blog by Nicole Lamb-Hale, Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing and Services Today, I joined members of the President’s Export Council (PEC), U.S. and Canadian officials and U.S. and Canadian businesses to discuss border trade opportunities and challenges between American and Canadian companies. Canada and the United States share a unique relationship = we share not only borders, but economies.Canada and the United States’ economies are greatly intertwined. The two nations share the world’s largest and most comprehensive trading relationship, which supports millions of jobs in each country. However, Canada and the United States don’t simply trade goods with each other: we build things together and rely on each other’s markets to design and build products that compete in global markets. In 2010, U.S. Exports to Canada were worth $249.1 billion, 19 percent of total U.S. exports. These exports include motor vehicles and parts, agricultural and construction machinery, computer equipment, iron and steel, basic chemicals and petroleum and coal products.  The Administration will continue to work hard to help Michigan companies grow by breaking into foreign markets, increasing exports and creating jobs. The simple fact is that the more American – and Michigan – companies export, the more they produce. The more they produce, the more workers they need. And that means jobs. Good paying jobs here at home.

Thirty-five outstanding small- or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) took center stage at the President’s “E” Awards ceremony at the White House today. This morning, Commerce Secretary John Bryson and Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Michelle O’Neill joined Senior Adviser to the President Valerie Jarrett to honor U.S. companies and organizations that have made significant contributions to increasing American exports. A total of 41 companies and organizations—the largest group to receive the award in the past twenty years—were honored at the ceremony, which marks the 50th annual “E” Awards.Winners of the 2012 “E” award represent diverse communities across the country from places like Bakersfield, Calif., Baton Rouge, La., Bolingbrook, Ill., and Bradford, Pa. Of the honorees recognized at today’s ceremony, 35 are SMEs, 20 are manufacturers, and 17 are both.“E” Award recipients contribute to the President’s National Export Initiative (NEI) goal of doubling U.S. exports in order to support American jobs. A key component of the NEI is ensuring that America’s small businesses have the tools, resources and relationships they need to make exporting a growing part of their business operations and creating jobs in the United States.

All market participants have views on certain matters but until those views are researched they remain opinions without facts.

GMU's Tyler Cowen has a new article in the American Interest that explores a lot of the issues that I've been covering here for the last few years.  Cowen first provides three reasons to think that the United States could become an export powerhouse in the next few years (hint: none of them involve China's currency or President Obama's National Export Initiative):

By thestockmodel.com:Larry Ellison is Tony Stark. He's a billionaire playboy philanthropist. He owns a Mig and flies under the Golden Gate Bridge. He is very popular with the ladies. So is Oracle (ORCL) Stark Enterprises? Is it a dominant company with a visionary founder?

By Geoff Abbott: Lee Enterprises (Ticker: LEE) owns a portfolio of newspapers in small towns and medium-sized cities. We're well aware of poor fundamentals in the newspaper industry, and we believe that digital media will continue to encroach on print's territory. That said, we're willing to make small investments in companies with debatable fundamentals if we think the risk-reward profile overw

The findings suggest that a steady fall in net lending to smaller companies since 2008-9 is not just the result of weaker demand for loans or the deteriorating creditworthiness of potential borrowers, reports The Financial Times.