Is there a link between the decline in manufacturing jobs and the growing American trade gap?
R.G. Yes … most of the increased gap is in manufactured products … and a significant portion of that from manufacturing activity that shifted from U.S. to foreign production. T.S. Maybe there is a second-order effect, one of timing. If the re-allocation of resources including labor when U.S. manufacturing operations are shut down is slow, then I can see a case being made that in the process of a large-scale rearrangement of who produces what, and where, the two phenomena might be connected. If one accepts that idea, the next question would have to be how well the magnitudes of the two phenomena correspond to one another. (Perhaps such a calculation could begin as follows: assuming the average displaced worker is out of work for six months, and making a number of other assumptions, what portion of the current account deficit might be related to the presumed fact that the displaced workers do not find new employment immediately?) Such a calculation might reveal how plausible, or impl
