The auto industry

The always excellent Mark Perry posts this graph along with this:

BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, and Toyota all have or are building auto manufacturing facilities in the United States. And not one of these has shuttered a plant during this recession or before. At a time when the domestic-owned car industry is in intensive care, with Chrysler and GM in bankruptcy, the rest of the domestic manufacturing industry is doing pretty well and continuing to benefit America and the communities in which their plants are located.

These foreign-owned plants are nothing less than the foundation of the new U.S. auto industry. In 2008, 3.1 million cars of the total 8.7 million sold, or just over a third, were produced by foreign-owned companies making their products here. That percentage is surely higher now, with the recent plant closings by American-owned car companies. And last year, plants for foreign-owned auto companies purchased $53 billion in parts from U.S. suppliers, further increasing the economic benefits to the U.S. of these vehicles being manufactured here.

There really are two auto industries in the U.S., but it isn't foreign and domestic. It's union and non-unionized.