Industrialized nations without trade deficits? (buying, sell, wage, analysis)

[ncole1]

Do we have any now, and if so which ones?

When the entire world becomes developed, someone's got to do the producing!

[Malloric]

List of sovereign states by current account balance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some of them aren't really producing, or not really producing anything except oil anyway. Germany is the one most people jump to right away.

[cdelena]

Originally Posted by Malloric

...
Germany is the one most people jump to right away.

Clearly a standout when looking at the charts of those without oil wealth. I wonder what are the driving factors to make it happen... clearly they have a culture of productive investments and diligent work, have had little spending on national defense in the past 60 years, don't seem to have a huge attraction to low income migrants.

Just guessing here... anyone have a study that accounts for the fiscal responsibility.

[Mircea]

Originally Posted by ncole1

Do we have any now, and if so which ones?

When the entire world becomes developed, someone's got to do the producing!

That makes no sense at all.

Trade deficits as currently measured tell you nothing useful.

How many units have you imported or exported?

This is the same issue with Productivity. The only correct measure of Productivity is unit/volume.

Compare:

200,000 labor-hours; 1 Million widgets produced; unit price is $10; gross revenues $10 Million
190,000 labor-hours; 950,000 widgets produced; unit price is $12; gross revenues $11.4 Million

Did Productivity increase? No, you cannot make that claim.

Even though you fired 5 employees because you can't afford Obamacare, and you only made 950,000 widgets you're still producing 5 widgets per hour, so Productivity did not increase.

Same is true for Trade.

For purposes of analysis, US Dollar value of imports or exports is totally useless. Did you import more units, or fewer units than the year(s) before? Did the unit volume of exports increase or decrease?

Look back to the Bush Recession. Those idiots are saying that exports are increasing (in US Dollar value), so the US economy must be healthy. Well, no, the reality was that, yes, the Dollar value was increasing, but the number of units you were exporting was declining rapidly each quarter. Why? Because your export sector got hammered by the increase in the federal minimum wage, and couldn't react fast enough to get foreign suppliers, and then, too, it could not compete globally due to the US-imposed wage differential.

Without Trade, it is impossible to increase your Standard of Living beyond what the general economy. will bear.

A good example is the electronics to which you are all addicted.

Those require rare-Earth minerals, and you have none. Well, you have one, but it's one of the most useless rare-Earth minerals.

If you want to decrease your Trade Deficit, then you need to voluntarily give up electronics, otherwise, learn to deal with it.

Commercially...

Mircea

[Cuero]

And cut back on oil consumption.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by ncole1

Do we have any now, and if so which ones?

When the entire world becomes developed, someone's got to do the producing!

The total worldwide trade balance is of course zero. When all the world becomes developed it will continue to be zero. The developed world produces quite a bit of stuff, it just tends to be a lot more complicated and a LOT more expensive.

And the key to having a positive trade balance is to sell more than you buy. We're actually pretty good in the US and making stuff, but we're even better at buying stuff.

[Hoonose]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

The total worldwide trade balance is of course zero. When all the world becomes developed it will continue to be zero. The developed world produces quite a bit of stuff, it just tends to be a lot more complicated and a LOT more expensive.

And the key to having a positive trade balance is to sell more than you buy. We're actually pretty good in the US and making stuff, but we're even better at buying stuff.

This looks to be a difficult but useful read that I started last night:

The Great Rebalancing: Trade, Conflict, and the Perilous Road Ahead for the World Economy: Michael Pettis: 9780691158686: Amazon.com: Books

Why and how trade imbalances occur and how they are all linked globally now.
And why they can be good or bad.
More reasons why the EU is doomed as Germany has such persistent trade surpluses.