02 March 2006
U.S. Waste and Scrap
Richard Wolffe, senior White House correspondent for Newsweek, remarked on the Brian Lehrer NPR show today that, among other things, the controversy over the impending takeover of the operation of six U.S. ports by Dubai Ports World highlights the shamefulness of American participation in world trade. As he said, the largest share (probably by weight and bulk) of export shipments through the Port of New York is accounted for by waste paper and scrap metal.
What this statement fails to recognize is the transformation that the U.S. economy has undergone that makes physical trade a smaller component of its impact on the world than ever before. Of course, other ports in the U.S. handle the main physical commodities that the world depends on America to supply, like food. Moreover, certain high value items, like medical imagery equipment, can greatly skew the figures.
But, aside from that, the value of U.S. sales to its trading partners is now dominated by technological, financial, and other knowledge services that enable those countries to produce the physical things that are moved in international commerce. They also facilitate the outsourcing of both factory and service jobs. The success of the U.S. in supplying these key ingredients for the world economy is evidenced by the fact that it is the world’s largest consumer market. Those consumers generate a lot of scrap and waste, which fill the bottoms and decks of the many ships needed to carry the manufactured items they spend their wealth on.
Yes, they borrow enormous amounts of capital from the rest of the world to finance their consumption habits. They pay interest to those lenders, and those lenders are confident in America’s ability to repay the loans. In fact, those lenders probably envy the ability of the U.S. to survive on sales of waste paper and scrap.
Richard Wolffe, senior White House correspondent for Newsweek, remarked on the Brian Lehrer NPR show today that, among other things, the controversy over the impending takeover of the operation of six U.S. ports by Dubai Ports World highlights the shamefulness of American participation in world trade. As he said, the largest share (probably by weight and bulk) of export shipments through the Port of New York is accounted for by waste paper and scrap metal.
What this statement fails to recognize is the transformation that the U.S. economy has undergone that makes physical trade a smaller component of its impact on the world than ever before. Of course, other ports in the U.S. handle the main physical commodities that the world depends on America to supply, like food. Moreover, certain high value items, like medical imagery equipment, can greatly skew the figures.
But, aside from that, the value of U.S. sales to its trading partners is now dominated by technological, financial, and other knowledge services that enable those countries to produce the physical things that are moved in international commerce. They also facilitate the outsourcing of both factory and service jobs. The success of the U.S. in supplying these key ingredients for the world economy is evidenced by the fact that it is the world’s largest consumer market. Those consumers generate a lot of scrap and waste, which fill the bottoms and decks of the many ships needed to carry the manufactured items they spend their wealth on.
Yes, they borrow enormous amounts of capital from the rest of the world to finance their consumption habits. They pay interest to those lenders, and those lenders are confident in America’s ability to repay the loans. In fact, those lenders probably envy the ability of the U.S. to survive on sales of waste paper and scrap.
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