Why Target, Office Depot and all big retailers need to do more “buying American”!
by
Thomas Schinkel
November 22, 2009
A simple change in the way the largest retailers source their goods could have a dramatic effect on the United States’ trade imbalance with the rest of the world, and bring a host of other benefits in the bargain.
In America, we have two problems that touch the lives of every citizen, rich, poor and middle-class. These two problems are inextricably linked. The media have done, and continue to be do a poor job of explaining these problems to the American public , let alone describing solutions.
What are these two inextricably linked problems? One is the “Structural Trade Deficit”. The other is the “Triangle of Debt” (Government, Financial Services industry and Households). Here is what these two problems look like in isolation:
Structural Trade Deficit as Pct of GDP
Exhibit One of course, shows the Trade Deficit as a pct of Gross Domestic Product (GDP and highlights the changes that started to take place after the mid-1970’s. The growing services sector creates a trade surplus year after year, but it is never enough to make up the shortfall incurred by the trade imbalance in goods.
