How fucked are we? US ranks 190th in Current Account Balance

Unarmed Gunman

Unarmed Gunman

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May 2, 2007
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From the CIA World Factbook:

This entry records a country's net trade in goods and services, plus net earnings from rents, interest, profits, and dividends, and net transfer payments (such as pension funds and worker remittances) to and from the rest of the world during the period specified. These figures are calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e., not in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.
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They rank 190 countries and the US comes in dead last by a mile. Someone smarter than me please explain how a situation this out of control can ever be fixed.
 


Unarmed Gunman said:
Someone smarter than me please explain how a situation this out of control can ever be fixed.
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Can't say I'm smarter than you but it's quite obvious that it can't. Just read this book which breaks everything down (the first half; the second is about hedging w/ commodities): [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Dollar-Meltdown-Surviving-Unconventional-Investments/dp/B0040RMF2K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298823653&sr=8-1]Amazon.com: The Dollar Meltdown: Surviving the Impending Currency Crisis with Gold, Oil, and Other Unconventional Investments: Charles Goyette: Books[/ame]
 
This country did not become great by having everyone working in the service industry. I hate to say it but this country is fucked unless there is major changes. Just look back at all the great empires that nobody thought would fall. It wasn't that long ago when the USSR was a super power. This country needs to start selling something other than our debt and our natural resources to the rest of the world
 
ohno.jpg
 
We aren't just ranked last, but we are about 10x worse than the second to last. This is like the disparity between Zimbabwe and North Korea on the list of the most economically free countries.

You ever hear of free talk live? It's a sometimes entertaining radio show that's mostly about small government/no government guys trolling everyone else. But they do occasionally bring up a lot of interesting news especially in regards to how bad the government is doing. I usually listen to their show about once a week on podcast while I'm cleaning as it's usually the only time I wouldn't rather be doing something else but if you want some background noise check them out.

Free Talk Live | Talk Radio You Control
 
Wait, let me the freako who argues against these numbers (there's one in every crowd and plus, it's makes the thread more entertaining).

Numbers are skewed because
1) US dollars are used as the world's reserve currency, meaning for example if you are a Colombian drug dealer, your stash is in dollars. Not to mention the Chinese super-elite that have tens of billions of cash stored away somewhere away from the prying eyes of their government.

2) Massive skew in counting widgets. For example, a skid of IPADS comes to America from China and sells for $500 a pop. Okay, the stats show $50,000K trade imbalance to China from US. But how much of that $50K really accrue to China and how much to Apple Inc. Some stupidly low number, like $20 out of $500

3) I just love it when people say the US needs to go back in manufacturing. Have ANY of you guys ever been in the manufacturing business? I was in printing for more than 10 years. A margin of five points is the norm. Forget about it.

4) I'm old enough to remember the same shit being sprouted about Japan and US in the eighties. The Japanese were going to buy up the US by year 2000. Oh yeah that worked out according to predictions.

The US has some stuff to work out for sure, but the IM who sling berries got nothing on the BS that comes from the economic stats boys.

JMHO. Everybody will disagree with me on this. But you kids just wait until you're old as me and you'll be rolling your eyes at this "America is in deep dodo" meme.

Every decade..after decade
 
Benji49 said:
Wait, let me the freako who argues against these numbers (there's one in every crowd and plus, it's makes the thread more entertaining).

Numbers are skewed because
1) US dollars are used as the world's reserve currency, meaning for example if you are a Colombian drug dealer, your stash is in dollars. Not to mention the Chinese super-elite that have tens of billions of cash stored away somewhere away from the prying eyes of their government.

2) Massive skew in counting widgets. For example, a skid of IPADS comes to America from China and sells for $500 a pop. Okay, the stats show $50,000K trade imbalance to China from US. But how much of that $50K really accrue to China and how much to Apple Inc. Some stupidly low number, like $20 out of $500

3) I just love it when people say the US needs to go back in manufacturing. Have ANY of you guys ever been in the manufacturing business? I was in printing for more than 10 years. A margin of five points is the norm. Forget about it.

4) I'm old enough to remember the same shit being sprouted about Japan and US in the eighties. The Japanese were going to buy up the US by year 2000. Oh yeah that worked out according to predictions.

The US has some stuff to work out for sure, but the IM who sling berries got nothing on the BS that comes from the economic stats boys.

JMHO. Everybody will disagree with me on this. But you kids just wait until you're old as me and you'll be rolling your eyes at this "America is in deep dodo" meme.

Every decade..after decade
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The Japaneses didn't get the whole US just Hawaii >.<
 
I live in Malaysia and we're ranked at #13 with $ 34,830,000,000 account balance.

Anybody wanna trade citizenships?

*cricket sound*
 
dmnEPC said:
This country did not become great by having everyone working in the service industry. I hate to say it but this country is fucked unless there is major changes. Just look back at all the great empires that nobody thought would fall. It wasn't that long ago when the USSR was a super power. This country needs to start selling something other than our debt and our natural resources to the rest of the world
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people in Russia say the same thing
 
one problem is they don't weigh the data to any number such as GDP, obviously USAs numbers are going to be much larger considering our GDP is much larger then all the countries listed.

For example is you weigh these numbers to GDP the USA's negative current account balance as a percentage of GDP would be ~3.8%, then next highest (spain) would be 4.5%.
 
It mostly has a lot to do with the population and hence, as mentioned above, the GDP. Also, if you take nations that appear to be better off than the USA and multiply that to a ratio to have the same population as the USA, we wouldn't come out on the bottom. The only example I can think of that violates that rule is China (it has a high population and a large GDP), but that seems to be because they are an economy that relies on imports.

But it's a serious problem.
 
Benji49 said:
Wait, let me the freako who argues against these numbers (there's one in every crowd and plus, it's makes the thread more entertaining).

Numbers are skewed because
1) US dollars are used as the world's reserve currency, meaning for example if you are a Colombian drug dealer, your stash is in dollars. Not to mention the Chinese super-elite that have tens of billions of cash stored away somewhere away from the prying eyes of their government.

2) Massive skew in counting widgets. For example, a skid of IPADS comes to America from China and sells for $500 a pop. Okay, the stats show $50,000K trade imbalance to China from US. But how much of that $50K really accrue to China and how much to Apple Inc. Some stupidly low number, like $20 out of $500

3) I just love it when people say the US needs to go back in manufacturing. Have ANY of you guys ever been in the manufacturing business? I was in printing for more than 10 years. A margin of five points is the norm. Forget about it.

4) I'm old enough to remember the same shit being sprouted about Japan and US in the eighties. The Japanese were going to buy up the US by year 2000. Oh yeah that worked out according to predictions.

The US has some stuff to work out for sure, but the IM who sling berries got nothing on the BS that comes from the economic stats boys.

JMHO. Everybody will disagree with me on this. But you kids just wait until you're old as me and you'll be rolling your eyes at this "America is in deep dodo" meme.

Every decade..after decade
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ditto. and yes I picked that word for a reason.

Another point. We could simply drill the oil within our borders and pay off all the debt. This would also lower gas prices to $1 a gallon and increase the disposable income of the "masses" and hence demand. Of course this would cause some inflation and the resulting increase in interest rates (to slow inflation) would raise the value of the dollar.

Remember the last gas crisis? It spurred production (same as it is this time) and ended with oversupply and gas prices at $0.72 a gallon in the late 80's. It will happen again.....
 
How fucked are we? I don't know or care. I can get up tomorrow and move to where ever the fuck I want, and I'm sure most of you can too... so whats the big deal?
 
I can stand on any street corner in these great united states and scream "I hate the fucking government"

Lets see you do that in some of the "better off" countries.
God Bless America... Let Freedom Ring!

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