Rowan argues the U.S. cannot be a low-cost manufacturing center without massive immigration.
“To the extent we do not want massive amounts of immigration, we are not going to be the low cost manufacturing center for low value goods.”
Rowan says labor availability is a bigger concern than capital availability in the U.S.
“Some days I wake up and worry about capital. Most days I wake up and worry about where will we get all the people to do this.”
Rowan says immigration reform and tariffs are fractionalizing labor and goods flows in inflationary ways.
“We are, for maybe good and valid reasons, fractionalizing our labor supply through immigration reform. We're fractionalizing our flow of goods through the other tariff and other measures.”