>Also, you used to use Keynes's long run quotation as your sig. How long
>has the US run deficits. This country actually imports quite a bit more
>than it exports
Jim Devine says that the U.S. current-account deficit has prevented the world economy from collapsing while allowing deflationary policies to continue nearly worldwide:
***** Ironically, it has been the weakness of the U.S. that has to a large extent blocked the deflationary result of competitive austerity and export promotion (and has encouraged world agencies to continue their deflationary policies). The U.S. federal government's accumulation of debt (via the budget deficit), boosts domestic demand, while the U.S. economy's accumulation of external debt (via the current-account deficit) boosts world demand. A sort of global Keynesianism based on hegemonic weakness has prevented collapse. The anti-contractionary effect of deficits has become more common as more governments have had increasing financial problems. [In the late 1990s, the government's deficit has disappeared, but the trade deficit has persisted and worsened. The latter has been holding up the world economy, while private investment has been replacing the government deficit as a source of growing domestic demand.] <http://clawww.lmu.edu/faculty/jdevine/subpages/depr/d4.html> *****
How long this can last is an interesting question.
>but despite the run-up of "unskilled" jobs during the
>final couple of Clinton years, outsourcing has been a definite negative
>for most "unskilled workers."
Many (most?) outsourced jobs have been outsourced inside the USA. Why can't unions organize them?
Yoshie