What can we do to reduce trade imbalance in the USA?
78809
The first thing to do is to have the US manufacture things.  We have a trade deficit because we import nearly everything that we buy.  Americans have traded quality for quantity.  \n\nIf we raise the price of exports, foreign countries won't buy.  \n\nIf we lower savings, well, we can't lower it from pretty much nothing.\n\nPushing the value of the dollar won't work because that's how we fund our government deficits.\n\nWe can't really raise consumption in the US because that's the same as lowering savings.\n\nWe seem to be okay with buying junky plastic toys from China just so our kids can have a house full of stuff that they never play with and that we throw out after 2 years to make room for more junk.
578646
Forget about equities.\n\nTrade forex!
173145
OK - regardless of your politics, I think most of us in the US right now would agree that gas prices are high, have been for awhile, and we're feeling the crunch a bit.  So instead of complaining, why don't WE make some small changes?  \n\nWalk or bike to work/school if you can, or use public transportation.\nTrade your SUV in for a more fuel efficient vehicle\nWeather proof your home in winter AND summer\nMake less trips (go grocery shopping once a week instead of constantly running back for things you've forgotten)\nTake shorter showers (use less hot water)\n\nCut down on gas, and gas prices stop effecting your wallet quite as much.
348246
I couldn't understand what is it exactly what you are asking. But i will do my best to give and honest answer that might shed some light on you.\n\nThe idea of a negative effect of the trade deficit has been discussed thoroughly by economists and it seems like we haven't got a proper answer yet. Is it good or bad? we don't know yet. WE know deficit and surpluses are favorable and unfavorable.\n\nAn expanding U.S. economy fuels demand by American consumers and producers to buy more imports as well as domestically produced goods and services.\nRising U.S. domestic output, in turn, attracts the foreign investment that finances an expanding U.S. current account deficit. \nIn contrast, slowing U.S. domestic demand not only depresses U.S. output and employment growth — but also lessens demand for imports and the inflow of foreign investment. \n\nIn addition to the uncertain causality, the evidence also does not address the question of how persistent and rising current account deficits may affect the U.S. economy in the long run.\nThe "sustainability" of the U.S. current account deficit has been much debated among the experts. But whatever negative impact the deficit may have in the long run, there is no evidence that it poses a drag on the U.S. economy in the short run. \n\nWhy does all this matter? The answer is simple. Misperceptions about the U.S. trade deficit and the economy can tempt U.S. policymakers to "do something" about the deficit to show that they are concerned.\n\nFrom my point of view i would say that a trade deficit (just as a fiscal deficit) is a tool used by a country to do some economic policy.\n\noh, and that "natural market consequence" that you are looking for might be the exchange rates. A fall in the exchange rates will cause foreigners to buy more of our goods and us to buy less foreign goods.
633967
the best way to address fair trade i believe is for the industrialized nations that pay a fair wage to form a trading group and any country that  doesn't pay its' workers a fair wage would be faced with heavy tariffs that would offset the unfair competition to our workers.  otherwise it's a race to the bottom.
778422
The reason it's happening is simple: CHEAP LABOR. We still have several large corporations here such as: Wal-Mart, Intel, Microsoft, Time-Warner, etc. NAFTA isn't the problem at all. The problem is our economic outlook, approach, and policy.
250854
Its not like the country is spending too much money on 'butter' its all guns, guns, guns, and tax breaks for those that can afford to pay the taxes and nothing for the poorest of the poor.  Three things will have to occur to get the USA out of this mess.\n  1.  Raise taxes on the middle and upper classes to something like 35-45% income tax.  \n  2.  Stop expending money on the military that ultimately gets spent outside the country.\n  3.  Raise tariffs on commodities coming in from outside the trading block to encourage domestic manufacturing to increase.  You can ship the middle class to China then expect to have a stable economy and political system.  Aristotle was right about the more 'stake holders' in a system, the more stable the system.
795151
Here's just a small part of why the dollar is weak and none of that's good. It is correct that it will make the trade deficit LOOK better than it is. The stock market has very little to do with the economy-it has to do with buying and selling. For the most part, the stock market today loves the inflation numbers which say inflation is low overall, but largely because it includes prices of vehicles, clothes and luxury items most of us can't buy. Food and housing costs are way up-and that's what most people need first. Corporate earnings are falsely inflated by cost cutting not by true growth. Our ever-increasing deficit-yes, our Treasuries-our US debt is 51% foreign owned. China is our largest foreign debtor. Most pundits as well as the administration don't want to tell us the bad news because US optimism-the will to shop-and the US consumer's desire to ignore problems-leads to "growth" and "profits". Sure, War is Peace and Debt is Wealth.\n\nLONDON (AFP) - The dollar sank to a 20-month low against the euro and a 14-year low against the pound as investors seized on weak manufacturing data in the US to drive the currency lower, dealers said. \n\nThe Chicago PMI index of business activity fell to 49.9 in November from 53.5 in October, well below analysts' expectations for a pick-up to 54.5, data showed.\n\nAnalysts said the data could portend a fall in the closely watched ISM manufacturing index which is to be published on Friday.\n\nCalyon currency analyst Mitul Kotecha played down talk of a recession in the US, which has been driving heavy selling of the dollar in recent days.\n\nThe euro has gained 3.7 percent agaist the dollar since November 21, taking it from 1.28 dollars to its present level of 1.32.\n\n"It's maybe too early to talk about a recession," said Kotecha.\n"Clearly the risk of a recession has increased in recent months.\n\nBank of New York currency analyst Michael Woolfolk said the Chicago PMI, combined with other income and spending data, "were the one-two punch that knocked the dollar back on the ropes, leaving little doubt over the near-term direction in the beleaguered greenback".\n\nLONDON (AFX) - The dollar stayed weak, hovering around the 1.32 mark against the euro and staying at 14-year lows against the pound following disappointing US weekly jobless claims numbers. \nUS jobless claims surged by 34,000 to 357,000 in the week just gone, well below analysts' forecasts for a fall in claims to 314,000, although the figures are likely to have been distorted by the Thanksgiving holiday. \nThe news broadly offset a stronger-than-expected core PCE deflator, the measure of inflation favoured by the Federal Reserve. \n"A larger than expected rise in jobless claims, even though the Labor Department says the Thanksgiving holiday skewed the data, is being emphasized by the market more than the unexpectedly firm core PCE deflator," said Jamie Coleman at Thomson IFR Markets. \nThe PCE measure showed that core inflation rose by 2.4 pct on an annual basis, above expectations for a more moderate 2.3 pct.
358025
No.  Canada is a lot more like Europe than America in many ways.  What they should do is form a united currency which would cut a lot of the costs out of trade.
772895
So, let's have that border fence. And, employer enforcement. AND, welfare reform. AND tax cuts, so legislators don't get all stoned and start pre-taxing your great-grandkids you haven't even had yet. And, and and. Get things back in balance. Also, get the foreign real estate speculators out of the US housing market so less americans end up on the street or on the dole every year.
923248
I have seen factories close factories in the USA just to save 10 cents to make a jacket, outsourcing to China or Mexico, I have also seen the traffic in the streets increasing because suppliers have to transport the imported water, the imported clothes, the imported electronics. Aren't we capable enough of producing more and only importing the necessary? Yes, a lot of people benefit from imports but is only 1%, the rest have to pay extra to bring it here, then get stuck on traffic 2 hours a day because "it" has to be delivered to someone who much rather to kick out every cheap immigrant who can make things here, spend at least some money in rent, food and other basic things, money which will stay here no matter what. One way or another there must be a balance here, we must think about why we must drink water from the French Alps instead of local water, that has nothing to do with hating every immigrant, as if we are not all immigrants in some way. Balance Imports, Keep American Goods and Work in America.
650101
People already complain enough about the trade balance and then we want to forbid exports?\n\nThe number of barrels exported is pretty miniscule compared to the daily usage.  They could just hedge with futures contracts and stop producing the oil if there was a law against exports.  The net would a real shortage including the ever popular gas lines.  It wouldn't affect actual prices that much.\n\nIf you look at the actual data, last week, we imported 9.8 million barrels of crude oil and exported 22 thousand barrels.  That's not a very strong case that exports affect oil prices at all.  We do export petroleum products, such as plastics and other such things because it's sensible to export the excess, especially if you get a better price for it.
1057283
Its time to bring back tariffs that Reagan reversed. You want to make stuff somewhere else for other countries go ahead but if you want to ship it hear its going to cost you, that is how you protect the people from the economic terrorist.
209780
Short term negative trade is great for the consumer. That means of course more stuff is coming INTO our country than is going out.  For some reason we allow all of this cheap stuff to come in from China and Belize and people like me go to Walmart and get $20 shoes instead of $60 shoes that were made in Massachusetts where the shoemakers used to get a decent wage and benefits before the American shoe manufacturers were driven out of business and shoe manufacturing was outsourced to China and India.  The shoe industry owners and management and share holders don't care who makes the shoes as long as it's done cheaply enough to keep them making a nice profit and they lean on the government to keep the imports coming - they HAVE to - all of their factories are overseas now.  If there are any domestic manufacturers left they are forced to keep their prices as low as possible because of all of the competition from cheap imports - supply and demand.  I as the consumer win in the short term because I get a pair of pretty darn good shoes at a rock bottom price.  I lose as an American because American jobs are disappearing, our tax base is eroding as we lose workers income taxes and industrial taxes at the local, state and federal level.  Jobless people swell the welfare rolls, Social Security input decreases.  The only possible advantage I can see is that it makes us more interdependent on one another internationally.  I mean how likely is China to nuke us or cut diplomatic ties while we supply a insatiable appetite for their goods. It would be like a shopkeeper shooting his biggest customer.
639508
The bottom line is it is about the all mighty dollar.  Maintaining access to foreign goods means that our government feels a need to exhaust our resources to "make nice" with other countries to help them with their strife--at the sacrifice of our own needs.  Sure there are some of the richest people on the planet here, but not all.  There are also a lot of severely impoverished as well.  We need to get our priorities straight as a nation.
607862
Not in the near future.  It will continue to decrease for the forseeable future.  A decreasing US dollar will help our exports and support the US economy.
1025249
cut off all forgien aid, imports, exports. Shut there country down economically from the rest of the world.