neil ferguson, mubani and khanfar. also, how in the world did one of the world's greatest sellers in the global bazaar lose its mojo? i'll explain. >>> but first, here's my take. president obama spoke forcefully in his state of the union about the importance of reviving manufacturing in america. if you talk with economists, they'll tell you it's a very complex problem. involving taxes, trade, regulatory policy, exchange rates, educational skills. it is all of those things. but when you move from high-level policy to specific cases, you'll often find one element that is rarely talked about, a government's role in boosting its domestic manufactur manufacturers. in a front-page story last week, "the new york times" detailed how apple's iphone ended up being made outside america. "the times" wrote about the apple executives who visited a factory in china to see if it could cut the glass precisely for the phone's touch screen. when the apple team got there, the factory owners were already constructing a new wing. this is in

let's hear from harvard history professor and author of a book called "shrivellization," neil fergusonrguments again romney is he's a business guy, he's laid people off, he made money at bane capital. >> yes, shocking, isn't it. the "new york times" talked about his long time running bane capitol and we were supposed to be appalled by the fact that he turned a series of people around and laid people off in the process, oh, and made some money, too. i must say, my reaction to that piece was almost completely the opposite of what the times intended. i was impressed. i hadn't realized that it was at that start-up bane capital and romney took it from the get go and made a huge success of it it. his record in business is impresssive. it's one thing to take an existing company and make it successful. to take a new thing from start up and make as much money as he did -- it seems this is the kind of qualification we should be looking for in the future president given that what we really need to see a turn around for the whole u.s. economy. >> gretchen: and some of the other criticisms that hav