RES: RES: [lbo-talk] Recent Growth & Bush's Economic Policy

[dredmond at efn.org]

Quoting kjkhoo at pro.SoftHome.net:

> as a general rule. In any case, in the present period, all countries 
> are more and more exposed to external trade. 

Not necessarily. External trade is only 16% of the continental EU's GDP and only
10% of Japan's, and the ratio of trade to GDP is well below its late 19th
century peak. 

> technology. Ditto the family of ICT goods. And these are usually 
> priced in USD, and in a world market at exchange rates. 

This isn't a problem for the EU or East Asia -- they have massive cash reserves
and they produce plenty of those ICT goods themselves. ICT production seems to
be shifting dramatically to the East Asian region -- Japan has recovered
somewhat, and China is growing like mad.

> To a 
> large degree, I think that's what's happened in SE Asia, including 
> Singapore whose currency was minimally affected by the 1997-98 
> financial crisis.

Isn't Singapore running huge current account surpluses, on the order of 15% or
20% of its GDP?

-- DRR