What’s Right about America?

What’s Right about America? 

U.S. Trust Bank sent out an e-mail last week to help restore the confidence Americans have in the United States. The facts presented were: The U.S. Economy is nearly three-times the size of China’s, and we are light-years ahead of China in terms of per-capita income. Our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $14.6 trillion is as large as the three largest economies – Japan, China and Germany, combined. U.S. remains the leader in manufactured goods. While data shows that China has pulled ahead of the U.S. with 21.2% of the world’s manufacturing, compared with 18.4% for the U.S., China’s numbers include some non-manufacturing sectors such as mining and a significant share of China’s manufacturing business is for foreign affiliates (i.e., strictly off-shore manufacturing that can be done “anywhere.”) U.S. remains the largest exporter of goods and services.

The U.S. posted a trade deficit in goods every year since 1975. However, when goods and services are combined America emerges as the world‟s largest exporter with combined exports of $1.8 trillion, or over 9% of total worldwide trade. U.S. remains the favorite place for new investment. The U.S. remains the most attractive market in the world for foreign investment. Why? The U.S. market is the largest and Americans have some of the highest incomes in the world, our large workforce is skilled, and our American transparent rule of law provides greater business certainty. U.S. received $2 trillion in foreign investment between 2000 and 2010, compared with $792 billion for China. America’s share of global foreign investment was 16% compared with 6% for China. America is home to the top worldwide brand names. 

Among the top 100 brands in the world, nearly half come from America. Among the top ten, nine are American companies. America remains the world’s technology leader. The U.S. remains the most innovative economy in the world. America is the largest market for information technology spending on hardware, software and services. America leads the way in social media. America still has the world’s top ranked universities. While our public schools are showing little sign of improvement and rank poorly compared with other leading economies, our university system is still at the top. Rankings of university strengths by subject matter show U.S. universities hold 60% of the top ten positions in academic fields. 

America hosted 690,923 foreign students to our universities in 2010. U.S. military spending and leadership is the source of many innovative new products. America’s military is the best in the world through the use of new high technology invention. These inventions help to start new businesses. The Internet was originally developed to support the military. The U.S. Dollar is still the largest currency held by foreign banks. Banks generally hold U.S. Dollars or the Euros, and 61% of central bank reserves outside the U.S. are held in U.S. Dollars with only 27.8% share for the euro.