On Sep 15, 2007, at 2:24 PM, Robert Wrubel wrote:
> What are "nontraded goods and services"? Everything
> except manufacturing?
Not quite - some services are tradable. Here's a selection from the balance of payments accounts:
Travel
Passenger fares
Other transportation
Freight
Port services
Royalties and license fees
Other private services
Education
Financial services
Insurance services
Telecommunications
Business, professional, and technical services
Other unaffiliated services
Travel and transportation are about 40% of the total; finance, about 12%.
Goods exports for the U.S. are about 2.5 times service exports. The U.S. has a substantial surplus on services exports, but it's small beer next to the goods deficit (goods def is about 6.6% of GDP, vs. +0.5% surplus on svc).
Doug