The Balancing Of Globalization
The United States has been responsible for 96% of the growth in world GDP
since 1996. We are the engine that pulls the world. However, to do it we
have run ever increasing trade deficits, which now run well over $500
billion. This is an unsustainable trend. As the dollar continues it slide,
at some point the world will cease to finance our deficits at today's
level.
However, this presents the world's central bankers with a dilemma. If they
let the dollar fall too far, too fast or somehow damage the US economy, the
main source of their economic growth would be reduced. If the US economy
catches cold, many of the nations of the world might also catch our colds
or develop economic pneumonia.
The hope among especially Asian Central Bankers is that they can build a
middle class which becomes capable of supplying its own consumer spending
and growth engine and they will become less dependent upon the American
consumer. So far, they seem to feel that it is better to take dollars which
are decreasing in value than to risk recessions and turmoil in their own
economies. The goal seems to be to try and slowly transition to a more
balanced world economy.
But whether that new balance is slow or fast, it will happen. Asia has
tasted the fruits of a free market for decades. China has drunk the Kool-
Aid of Capitalism. There is no turning back. Further, as these economies
grow and become increasingly privatized and a new emerging middle class
develops, they will increasingly become their own growth engines.
While I am concerned that the transition may not be as smooth as the world
might like, and in fact might be quite rocky when the United States falls
into recession, this is a trend that is locked in place.
As an aside, the world is currently obsessed with China and the powerful
growth in the Chinese economy. And rightly so. But I would keep my eye on
India. The economy there has been disappointing for decades, as their
government pursued a socialist policy which did not foster trade and
development. That is changing. As a younger and highly educated population
begins to eye the rest of the world, they will force India to become more
open. I think India is a sleeping giant. In a few decades we could be
talking about the Indian Miracle.
One other prediction: China will be griping about the unfairness of cheap
labor from western Asia within 20-30 years.
All this is going to increase global trade as the developing world
increases trade with each other and with the developed world. Despite cries
from luddites like Senator Charles Shumer of New York and other
protectionists, there is no stepping down from increasingly free markets.
Any attempt to close barriers in a significant way or to impose tariffs
will precipitate a trade war and a world wide depression. The US has in
fact lost fewer manufacturing jobs (percentage wise) than Europe or even
many third world countries like Brazil. We are producing only slightly less
than we did at the peak in 2000. We are simply doing it with fewer workers,
as productivity has increased. The US will not be a third world country in
20 years as Paul Craig Roberts, a former Reagan Treasury official,
predicts.
In 1975, as things looked bleak and we were sending jobs to Japan, there
were those who predicted the demise of the US. The economy was in terrible
shape. (Do you remember the Whip Inflation Now buttons?) Where would we
find jobs in the future? The correct answer was, "I don't know, but we
will, because that is what free markets and American entrepreneurs do." It
is still the correct answer today. 25% of workers in the US today hold jobs
that were not even on the government list of jobs in 1967. That has been
the case for the last two centuries of American history. That does not mean
the transition is a walk in the park. It might be quite daunting. But it
will happen.