Comments for Everyone Cannot Use Trade Surpluses to Generate Demand at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 4 out of 4 comments http://www.cepr.net Fri, 24 May 2013 20:09:57 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/everyone-cannot-use-trade-surpluses-to-generate-demand#comment-2180 Word order may not be important to economists. - wil Cummings Mon, 16 Aug 2010 05:36:11 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/everyone-cannot-use-trade-surpluses-to-generate-demand#comment-2159 The reason Germany has a trade surplus is because they have products people want to buy. If the US is forced into protectionism it is because their products simply can't compete on the world market. And also because the financial sector demands the dollar as reserve currency even if makes it over valued. The US is going to have to make a choice. It can no longer support financial or military empire. The dominance in production and innovation that existed after WWW2 and Bretton Woods is long gone. This means giving up veto power in the IMF and also voluntarily moving to a Bancor type of system. The alternative is a collapse in domestic employment, fragmentation of politics and all the instability that will bring. - purple Sat, 14 Aug 2010 18:55:35 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/everyone-cannot-use-trade-surpluses-to-generate-demand#comment-2158 You failed to note that German exports no doubt are aided by the soft Euro. Germany has a strong economy, but their currency is no doubt undervalued for them, but balanced for all of Europe based on Greece, Spain and Ireland, among others. I think that the Euro crisis caught many American policy makers off guard. It should have been the dollar that softened. But the crises in Europe strengthened the dollar, hurting our exports' competitiveness. - scott Sat, 14 Aug 2010 18:52:19 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/everyone-cannot-use-trade-surpluses-to-generate-demand#comment-2152 [quote]It would have been worth noting that it is not possible for every country to follow Germany's path of relying on a large trade surplus (someone must have a corresponding deficit).[/quote] That's correct, now if only Mr Whose Your Nanny would follow through with this zero sum logic and agree that not everyone can be among the concentrated rich espousing austerity. For every one of them running a surplus, there must be a hundred others running a deficit to complete the accounting offset. - izzatzo Sat, 14 Aug 2010 05:17:19 +0100