Meanwhile, the dollar has also had its ups and downs, but on balance its value against a large basket of currencies has been relatively stable. In relation to domestic gold and commodity prices, the dollar gets stronger and stronger. With this enhanced buying power, American consumers now have the online Internet capability to search for and identify the highest quality goods at the lowest available prices anywhere in the world. Because we have the lowest average tariff rates of any major country, these goods and services can be cheaply and easily imported. Families and businesses prosper as never before.
Free trade is more important than trade deficits.
The key point is that the rising combined total of imports and exports shows what a healthy economy we have. The fact that imports have been rising faster than exports is of no economic consequence. Actually, exports are badly undercounted anyway. Small businesses don't fill out the requisite forms, and software and related technology and communications exports are not identified by the government. In fact, the whole trade balance model that upsets Keynesian economists so much is a quaint leftover from the 1950s, when the flow of goods from steel, autos, heavy machinery and raw materials dominated world trade flows.