Bethlehem Steel in the context of "Joseph P. Kennedy Sr."

Deindustrialization is a process of social and economic change caused by the removal or reduction of industrial capacity or activity in a country or region, especially of heavy industry or manufacturing industry.

There are different interpretations of what deindustrialization is. Many associate American deindustrialization with the mass closing of automaker plants in the now so-called Rust Belt between 1980 and 1990. The U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest and exchange rates beginning in 1979, and continuing until 1984, which automatically caused import prices to fall. Japan was rapidly expanding productivity during this time, and this decimated the US machine tool sector. A second wave of deindustrialization occurred between 2001 and 2009, culminating in the automaker bailout of GM and Chrysler.

The Wharton School (/ˈhwɔːrtən/ WHOR-tən) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton School is the world's oldest collegiate business school. It is one of six Ivy League business schools, and is the business school which has produced the highest number of billionaires in America, including Warren Buffett, Elon Musk, and U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Wharton School awards undergraduate and graduate degrees with a school-specific economics major and concentrations in over 18 disciplines in Wharton's academic departments. The undergraduate degree is a general business degree focused on core business skills. At the graduate level, the Master of Business Administration program can be pursued by itself or along with dual studies leading to a joint degree from its law, engineering, and government schools.

The Rust Belt, formerly the Steel Belt or Factory Belt, is an area of the United States that underwent substantial industrial decline in the late 20th century. The region is centered in the Great Lakes and Mid Atlantic regions of the United States. Common definitions of the Rust Belt include Ohio, Indiana, Northern Illinois, southeastern Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Upstate New York. Some broader geographic definitions of the region include parts of Central Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, and West Virginia. The term "Rust Belt" is considered to be a pejorative by some people in the region.

Between the late 19th century and late 20th century, the Rust Belt formed the industrial heartland of the country, and its economies were largely based on iron and steel, automobile manufacturing, coal mining, and the processing of raw materials. The term "Rust Belt", derived from the substance rust, refers to the socially corrosive effects of economic decline, population loss, and urban decay attributable to deindustrialization. The term gained popularity in the U.S. beginning in the 1980s, when it was commonly contrasted with the Sun Belt, whose economy was then thriving.