Total US exports are actually at higher levels now than before the recession and have been in a clear uptrend (with the exception of recessions) for the last 40 years. Let's take a closer look at the data.
The chart above shows the last 5 years of data, and we see clearly that exports have overtaken previous levels and are now near all time highs.
And here are two charts which show what we export:
Here is a list of the information in graphic form:
| Civilian aircraft, engines, equipment, and parts | 80,172,454,470.00 |
| Petroleum products, other | 54,237,010,317.00 |
| Fuel oil | 52,800,539,232.00 |
| Other parts and accessories of vehicles | 47,365,339,805.00 |
| Passenger cars, new and used | 47,354,593,365.00 |
| Pharmaceutical preparations | 45,468,815,842.00 |
| Industrial machines, other | 45,246,225,629.00 |
| Semiconductors | 43,773,152,276.00 |
| Chemicals-organic | 39,419,030,345.00 |
| Plastic materials | 36,025,994,150.00 |
| Telecommunications equipment | 35,849,294,688.00 |
| Electric apparatus | 35,118,902,366.00 |
| Nonmonetary gold | 33,228,280,326.00 |
| Medicinal equipment | 32,041,186,500.00 |
| Computer accessories | 31,567,258,172.00 |
| Minimum value shipments | 30,028,425,150.00 |
| Chemicals-other | 28,783,602,478.00 |
| Industrial engines | 28,102,493,451.00 |
| Measuring, testing, control instruments | 23,742,788,374.00 |
| Other industrial supplies |
22,985,042,545.00 |
1 comment:
Certainly exports of agricultural, coal, and petro products has gone way up. But as for manufactured goods, the numbers are highly misleading. They appear to be going way up because of the huge increase in margins. This is because most the parts of everything on the list are made abroad and brought into the US extremely cheap - mostly due to the low value of Asian currencies -, then US corporations put those components into the final goods and export them back out. So what's happened over the past decade or two is that the value of the parts/components has gone way way down, while the value of the final good has gone way way up. This is due to out-sourcing. It has resulted in total employment going thru the floor, and profit margins going thru the roof. It also makes it appear that the US manufacturers a lot more, but that is accounting trickery. The vast majority of Americans, especially those who work in a factory or used to, know the US manufacturers far less than a decade or two ago. It's only some data watchers taht haven't figured it out yet.
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