A record crowd of over 320 people recently attended the Second Annual Conference on the Renaissance of American Manufacturing: Jobs, Trade and the Presidential Election. This one-day conference, moderated by King & Spalding, focused on solutions to the decline of manufacturing in America and highlighted manufacturing and trade as critical issues for the upcoming presidential and congressional elections. The driving force behind the conference is the belief that manufacturing is a critical part of the United States' economy and, without a strong manufacturing sector, the United States will not sustain the level of economic success that previous generations enjoyed. Government policy failures and inaction have contributed to the decline of U.S. manufacturing and these factors need to be understood and remedied. Transforming trade and manufacturing policies are a critical part of that effort. A number of proposed solutions emerged during the Conference, including responding to China's overvalued currency, lowering the high corporate tax rate, creating a Secretary of Manufacturing, correcting the lack of a comprehensive manufacturing policy, developing a more aggressive policy against unfair foreign trade practices, and dealing with intellectual property theft. These issues resonate throughout the economy. As the President and his Republican opponent seek to address one of the hottest topics in this election, it is evident that the jobs picture will not improve in the United States in a meaningful and sustained way without addressing the decline in manufacturing.