While economists and politicians alike tout "thinking global" as a win-win situation, the USA's next-door neighbors to the north examine real life for working Americans in the new global economy. Manufacturing jobs lost: In North Carolina, for example, the textile industry is bleeding jobs at the rate of 17 every hour. In the heartland of Nebraska, dying family farms, and sick small towns whose local businesses can't compete with Wal-Mart, leave a legacy of rural poverty and crystal meth. And what of the industry that was supposed to take the place of those erstwhile economic mainstays – the so-called knowledge sector? It's being outsourced to Asia faster than you can click on a web link. Produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, "America Up Close" puts America's vaunted economic supremacy under the microscope, presenting a warts-and-all portrait of the country as seen by its closest neighbor.

While economists and politicians alike tout "thinking global" as a win-win situation, the USA's next-door neighbors to the north examine real life for working Americans in the new global economy. Manufacturing jobs lost: In North Carolina, for example, the textile industry is bleeding jobs at the rate of 17 every hour. In the heartland of Nebraska, dying family farms, and sick small towns whose local businesses can't compete with Wal-Mart, leave a legacy of rural poverty and crystal meth. And what of the industry that was supposed to take the place of those erstwhile economic mainstays – the so-called knowledge sector? It's being outsourced to Asia faster than you can click on a web link. Produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, "America Up Close" puts America's vaunted economic supremacy under the microscope, presenting a warts-and-all portrait of the country as seen by its closest neighbor.