Because of massive Chinese subsidies to several industries, no free trade exists and markets have failed. To survive, U.S. and European companies must seek government support to open Chinese markets and to protect themselves from subsidized products domestically.

Hard as it may be to believe, there are forces in Washington that oppose the revival of the U.S. manufacturing sector. Who are they, and how do we counter their efforts? I think -- roughly -- they fall into five groups.

The reality on the ground is that U.S. manufacturing is today giving a good account of itself, but with sensible incentives, it could do much more.

CNBC: Walk onto the shop floor at Prince Industries in Shanghai, China and it looks like most other manufacturing plants in this country. It's busy...

The fact is there are hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs available right now, but they remain unfilled because employers can't find workers with the right skills. Those employers are America's manufacturers.

Some worry that a bubble may be forming but we still have a long way to go to meet pent up demand, let alone any level considered "normal."

If we don't invest today, there will be nothing to build a foundation on going forward. The good news is that investment appears to be coming back.

As bad as the Great Recession might have been for manufacturing, it's had a fascinating silver lining for the image of manufacturing, which not too long ago felt like a lost cause.

How can we change the current misperception that manufacturing is not a career opportunity that women would want to pursue? How can we attract female leadership?

I have never been as excited about the prospects for U.S. manufacturing as I am today. We are entering a new era -- a new golden age of amazing modern manufacturing.

The shift toward electronics and other high-tech products requires different facilities and skill sets than the U.S. employed in its manufacturing heyday. And as a country we need to portray manufacturing as an attractive, stable career.

Walmart made a little bit of news on Tuesday announcing plans to source an additional $50 billion worth of American-made goods over the next decade. But it's also worth noting that Walmart's move is not altogether altruistic.

The fact is, manufacturing in the U.S. has been moving away from labor intensive work processes for many years. Advancing robot technology will heighten demand for highly skilled labor.

While the immediate prospects of the U.S. economy are bleak, and nothing happening in Washington suggests an early improvement, there is more than ample reason to believe our economy can look forward to better times in the not too distant future.

When manufacturers have hundreds of thousands available jobs and nobody to fill them, during a period of high unemployment, the crisis is obvious. There's just not enough people to get the job done.

We must invest in the American workforce and continue to fund research to stay ahead of our competitors -- and our enemies. The only way America will continue to lead in the aerospace industry is if we continue to stay ahead of our global competitors.