> We don't get much surplus out of trade with Nigeria (even with their oil).
> We don't get much surplus out of trade with Pakistan.
> We don't get much surplus out of trade with Vietnam.
> We get a lot of surplus out of trade with South Korea.
> We get a lot of surplus out of trade with France.
> We get a lot of surplus out of trade with West Germany.
I hate to break the news to you, Brad, but we're running huge trade deficits with the latter three countries. They're exporting us into the ground, in fact (just ask Chrysler, or Micron). We sell lots of stuff to them, sure, but they sell even more to us. Is it really in our national interest to piss away our national savings on wild stock bubbles while foreign multinationals buy up our industrial base? If so, then we've sunk to the semi-peripheral level of a Malaysia. Hmm, come to think of it, maybe we could use some capital controls, too...
-- Dennis