The Great Escape: The Multinational Trade Deficit in Historical Perspective. Issue 1 (2nd January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Medlen, Craig
• Is Part Of: Journal of economic issues. Volume 52:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: 227
• Page End: 245
• Publication Date: 2018-01-02
• Subjects: affiliate production -- multinational corporations -- trade deficit; F20 -- F21 -- F23; Economics -- Periodicals; Economics; Économie politique -- Périodiques; Economie; ECONOMICS; ECONOMIC POLICY; Periodicals; 330.05
• DOI: 10.1080/00213624.2018.1430952
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-3624

Abstract

Abstract: During the Bretton Woods era, the debate surrounding U.S. export sales versus U.S. multinational production focused primarily on the maintenance of pegged exchange rates and labor's concern over the export of jobs. The collapse of Bretton Woods gave at least the hope that a decline in the dollar would expand exports and limit imports. Yet, the forty-year secular decline in the dollar has been one with a secular expansion of U.S. trade deficits. The older concerns of U.S. multinational sales competing with U.S. exports retain a current relevance. They help explain the unending nature of U.S. trade deficits.