The only real economy is manufacturing - using the term in a broader sense that what is common today.
It all comes down to this. People make stuff. If they get efficient at making stuff then they trade with other people for the stuff they make. People, and people groups that become very efficient can make a lot of stuff per person hour expended. They then have more to trade with and accumulate lots of other peoples stuff (become wealthy).
Everything thing else, including currencies, is fluff at best and smoke and mirrors at worst.
If a country continually buys more stuff than they sell - they become poor over time. They export their wealth until they run out of it.
In principle I am all for free markets and free trade.
That said there are people on this forum who are so hung up on the theory they refuse to acknowledge any complexities. There is the façade of free trade among nations but that trade is never fair. Other governments, including many of our best allies, constantly screw us by any means necessary. Such as the French constantly stealing our industrial secrets, countries that pay no heed to the pirating of our intellectual property, or countries that pull stunts like declaring all US products to be ‘unsafe’. We have stupidly tolerated this since WWII.
So screw free trade. There is no such animal in the real world. We need fair trade - and as much as possible would be good for everyone.
Fair trade can only be obtained by each country putting up tariffs on partners who they run trade deficits with until the trade balances out.
When there is little cheating going on - then lots of trade can take place. If governments try to cheat under this system then they end up losing out to other countries who do not cheat, and therefore, do not have tariffs placed on their goods.
Final point. The US is a huge market and we would be much better off (in the long run) with no international trade at all than what is happening now. We are exporting our wealth, and creating a two class society. The solution is absolutely free markets - but we cannot be naïve or simple about it.
Industrial espionage happens. It simply exists, like water flowing downhill. You don’t think GM, or Ford, don’t have a dedicated department to disassemble Japanese and German cars to see what makes them tick?
So, do you define “fair trade” as a situation in which there are zero trade deficits or surpluses with every trading partner? I thought you meant that “fair trade” had to do with the absence of non-tariff barriers (declaring our products unsafe, etc.), government subsidies of export industries, and so forth.
Do you subscribe to the theory of comparative advantage? Do you have a trade balance with every one of your personal trading partners?
Actually, the only way fair trade exists is with free trade. Maybe you believe we should start growing bananas and coffee in the U.S. Cutting off oil imports might cause a few problems too, don't you think?
You should just admit that you're not for free markets or free trade.
So services don't count.
In the late 1800's folks used to scoff at manufacturing saying that the only thing we really need is food and you can't eat a machine. So my grandfather bought a farm in Indiana and my dad's family starved. Folks found out that while a farm can only produce so much food, a farm plus a tractor could produce a hundred times as much food, and farm workers went from half the U.S. workforce to half of one percent --and we now produce more food than ever.
It's been the same ways w/ manufacturing, that a factory can only make so much stuff but a factory with a better layout can produce a hundred times as much, and manufacturing workers just don't need to be as big a chunk of the labor force anymore. Things change.