Employee Ricardo Lobo counts euros and U.S. dollar notes in a currency exchange store in Lisbon, Portugal, on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010. Mario Proenca/Bloomberg/Getty Images

A single government action could create millions of private-sector jobs without spending any tax dollars. It is an idea that has support from both economists who favor capital and those who favor labor.

Yet hardly anyone in Washington is talking about it.

The action? Lower the value of the dollar against other currencies.

How would lowering the value of the dollar create jobs? A pricey dollar, the so-called strong dollar, makes imports cheaper and U.S. exports more costly. Because of weak foreign demand for U.S.-made goods, due in part to the dollar's strength, the United States is using only a bit more than three-fourths of its industrial capacity. (See graphic below.)

Lowering the relative value of the dollar is also an appropriate response to the charge that China is depressing the value of the renminbi to encourage exports to the United States.

In September, the latest month for which data are available, the United States imported $41.8 billion more in goods and services than it exported, an 8 percent larger trade deficit than in August.

More troubling, exports of goods and services both declined, while imports of goods grew. In the first nine months of this year, imports from China grew 2.5 times faster than our exports to China. This worsening trend continued even though the renminbi's value has risen somewhat.