Sure, we export a lot – but not enough to cover our appetite for imports. This article seems to focus on absolute – not relative – export size.
If our country were the size of France with a population roughly that size and 1/4 of our current debt, these stats would be impressive.
But trying to carry 300 million+ people and $11 trillion of debt on the manufacturing capacity outlined in this article just seems laughable.
This would have impressed me, oh, say before Dubya came to office and got the debt machine cranking in earnest. But 2 wars and a gazillion bailouts later, these numbers are quite underwhelming.
Reminds me of people I used to run into in LA at parties: they make 350K a year, live in Malibu and impress their friends and neighbors. But what they don’t tell you is that spend most of their money on cars and vacations, and they’ve got an ARM on their house.
