Deere in the Headlights

John Deere should be plowing forward on all cylinders. After all, this is supposed to be an American era that cultivates ideal conditions for companies just like Deere to enjoy a bountiful harvest. As the NYT (Gift Article) reports, “John Deere is just the sort of manufacturing powerhouse that Mr. Trump says he wants more of in the United States. The company, based in Moline, Ill., has made farm equipment since 1837. Its green-and-yellow tractors, combines and sprayers help farmers feed the country and produce billions of dollars’ worth of crops for export. The company employs 30,000 workers in 60 facilities across the country and said more than 75 percent of its machines were assembled in the United States. Just 25 percent of the components used in its products come from foreign countries.” But John Deere is not reaping what it thought it sowed. John Deere, a U.S. Icon, Is Undermined by Tariffs and Struggling Farmers. Maybe investors, employees, farmers, and everyone else should have taken it more seriously when Trump threatened John Deere during the campaign. Those threats continue to grow like weeds. John Deere already makes a perfectly good manure spreader. America didn’t need another one.