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Your static assertions of "U.S." manufactures is obviously outweighted by the imports.

My assertions? More like the facts showing what we manufacture. 80% more than Japan. 129% more than China. If you think that's of no account, well, we've already seen your poor grasp of the truth.

My assertions? More like the facts showing what we manufacture. 80% more than Japan. 129% more than China. If you think that's of no account, well,...we've already seen your poor grasp of the truth.

Those facts...when you dig beneath the glossy headlines... say otherwise. Your manufacturing claims (which are not facts) are truly HOLLOW

Some points to consider.

As Dr. Walter Williams has correctly pointed out, countries don't trade with each other, individuals do. It is assumed that each party struck a satisfactory deal or there would have been no trade. Therefore, there is no trade imbalance!

Instead, there is a currency imbalance, with the rest of the world holding many more US dollars than we hold of their currencies. Starting back in the 1970s, the dollar against the Japanese yen and the German mark was so weak that a number of manufacturing facilities here closed down because we couldn't compete against Japanese and German manufactured products. That is when the term "rust belt" was coined to describe much of the Northeast and Midwest. The Japanese were gobbling up US properties right and left, including many famous golf courses. The gloom and doom was as rampant then as now.

Today, many, perhaps most, Japanese cars sold in this country are also made in this country along with the necessary replacement parts. Why? Because, despite currency fluctuations, it is cheaper to manufacture here than to manufacture there and ship the cars here. Modern technology has lowered the cost of production despite labor unions and government regulations seemingly designed to prevent it. So the Japanese built large plants here and hired Americans to work in them.

Airbus is now in grave danger of going bankrupt, or bankrupting the countries supporting them, because they must manufacture in Euros but they sell in dollars. (As you know lead times in aircraft production mean that the currency situation changed after they sold much of their backorder before the value of the currencies changed. It also means that they have more confidence in the US dollar than they do in their own Euro.) That causes about a 30% hit right out of the gate.

This article was about currencies so let us address that. With all (?) currencies dependent on their perceived values, rather than being convertible to gold or something else, most of the value of any currency is dependent on confidence in the internal stability of the government. I know interest rates play a part but even that is dependent upon the stability of the country.

Secondly, why would any country holding a large number of dollars try to destroy the value of that asset by demanding immediate recompense if we could not easily fill the request? Basically, it is economic MAD.

All this hand wringing is for naught, except for the gold hustlers. The market eventually prevails whether we like it or not.