I grew up in the 1980's, by which point it was common knowledge that American-made products were of inferior quality and higher price than foreign goods. If you wanted the latest electronic equipment, it was made in Japan. If you wanted to buy a fancy car, it was German. If you wanted to buy the coolest clothes, they were made in someplace strange-sounding like Pakistan.

Given 2 decades of consuming experience, I'm just not surprised that no matter how much the dollar falls, the trade deficit remains stubbornly high. The theory is that if the value of the dollar is lower, then American-made products will be less expensive, and thus will gain in market share due to their lower price. But this hasn't happened. The NY Times thinks it's a mystery. But to me it's perfectly obvious.

It doesn't matter how much the dollar falls if foreign workers are getting paid 1/10 as much as Americans (are you going to cut 90% of the dollar's value? I didn't think so). And it really doesn't matter if no one wants to buy any of your crap. Seriously, what can we sell to other countries that they would want? Our non-existent consumer electronics? Our crappy cars?

Unless American companies stop killing themselves with incompetence & greed, and unless we start re-examining our trade and industrial policies, the next generation of Americans is going to grow up in a 3rd world country. Because you see, that's what happens to indebted nations who have nothing anybody else wants to buy - you become poor.

But hey, who cares? We'll all be under water anyway.