US trade deficit is going to be balanced, the hard way or the easy way, eventually [View All]

http://www.activistpost.com/2011/05/american-manufacturing-crisis-and-why.html

Ian Fletcher: The American Manufacturing Crisis and Why it Matters

Posted on May 26, 2011

Despite the denial chorus of the same politicians, financiers, and economists who told us prior to 2008 that our financial sector was fine, the American public is increasingly aware of the truth: American manufacturing is in a state of deep crisis. (And ,as I argued in a previous article, the recent small uptick in this sector doesn’t change that fact.) snip

Our trade deficit is going to be balanced, the hard way or the easy way, eventually. And it will be essentially impossible for the U.S. to balance its trade without healthy manufacturing exports. Unless, of course, we are willing to radically curtail our imports, which means either:

a) A reduced living standard, or:

b) We start producing the formerly imported goods for ourselves. This, of course, itself requires a strong manufacturing sector, so we’re back where we started.

So there’s no way to avoid manufacturing.