Russia Bans American Pork

Oh... wait, the Economy In Crisis site means they banned American pork meat, not American pork spending... damn... In either case, the article describes a few facets of international trade we could focus on to help our own economy. They key one to draw out is that Russia has a trade surplus of $137 billion annually. This means they're getting more money from others than they're giving out, and are becoming richer. We, on the other hand, have a trade deficit of almost $400 billion, and as a result are becoming poorer. We sold 1.8 trillion dollars in goods and services, but then bought 2.5 trillion dollars in good and services last year. This has been a trend for decades.

If there's any wonder why we have no money, this could be a possible explanation in that, over just the past decade, we've spent five trillion more dollars than we've earned. That's the equivalent to around $1,600 per year per American. If we need to free up some money or clear debt, yes we could look to spending cuts or tax increases. Alternately, we could try selling more things to people who have money (such as Russia with their massive trade surplus, or China and Germany who also have them).

In addition to discussions on what to tax and what spending to cut, we should "encourage" each other to step back and look at what's selling the best between nations, see if we can make it to sell too, and if we already do, can we make more of it and create jobs that way.