{"id":123,"date":"2025-06-06T14:03:24","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T18:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/?p=123"},"modified":"2025-06-06T14:03:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T18:03:24","slug":"exports-then-and-now-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/06\/exports-then-and-now-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","title":{"rendered":"Exports: Then and Now \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">John Maynard Keynes, arguably one of the most influential economists of the 20<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">th<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> century, noted <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/oll.libertyfund.org\/quotes\/j-m-keynes-reflected-on-that-happy-age-of-international-commerce-and-freedom-of-travel-that-was-destroyed-by-the-cataclysm-of-the-first-world-war-1920\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">in his 1920<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> book, <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The Economic Consequences of the Peace,<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> that before World War I: \u201cThe inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, in such quantity as he might see fit, and reasonably expect their early delivery upon his doorstep \u2026.\u201d Moreover, Keynes noted \u201c(the Londoner) regarded this state of affairs as normal, certain, and permanent. The projects and politics of militarism and imperialism, of racial and cultural rivalries, of monopolies, restrictions, and exclusion, which were to play the serpent to this paradise\u2026appeared to exercise almost no influence at all on the ordinary course of social and economic life, the internationalization of which was nearly complete in practice.<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Not only did the Great War of 1914-1918 undermine internationalization, but it was further retarded by\u00a0 the political and economic developments in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. The USA shut its door to immigration in the 1920s, adopted the Smoot-Haley tariff restrictions in the 1930s, and was a central actor in World War II in the 1940s. In the post-war period, the USA and other nations established numerous institutions to facilitate reviving internationalization. Nevertheless, the US was not extensively involved in the world economy until later.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">One measure of a nation\u2019s involvement in the international economy is the percentage of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) exported, where exports are goods and services provided to the rest of the world.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">From 1929-1969, exports, on average, accounted for only 4.5% of the USA GDP. However, in the decade of the 1970\u2019s USA exports, on average, increased to 7.2% of USA GDP. This percentage continued to rise each decade to 12.7% in the 2010s. However, since <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">2020, the USA GDP allocated to exports fell to 10.9%. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Before 1970, the USA usually ran trade surpluses but has not run a trade surplus since 1975.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In other words, before 1970, less than $1 out of every $20 of USA-produced goods and services were provided to the rest of the world. In the last decade, even with record trade deficits, exports increased so that around $1 out of every $8 of USA-produced goods and services were provided to the rest of the world.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Peace leads to more people having access to products from around the world. But Keynes\u2019 serpents of war, rivalries, and restrictions are constant dangers.\u00a0<\/span> <span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Maynard Keynes, arguably one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, noted in his 1920 book, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, that before World War I: \u201cThe inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, in such quantity as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[147,524,1196,42,317,1193,411,840,1192,1188,1190,1191,237,49,37,318,1194,1189,1198,1197,1195,428],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-macroeconomics","tag-economics","tag-economist","tag-exports","tag-gdp","tag-goods","tag-great-war","tag-immigration","tag-imperialism","tag-internationalization","tag-john-maynard-keynes","tag-militarism","tag-monopoly","tag-peace","tag-politics","tag-race","tag-services","tag-tariff","tag-the-economic-consequences-of-the-peace","tag-trade","tag-trade-surplus","tag-world-economy","tag-world-war-i"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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