Spitzer's Histrionics
8 June 2009
Editor, Slate
Dear Editor:
Eliot Spitzer asserts that the U.S. economy is in a "transition away from actual goods production" ("Green Shoots, Red Ink, Black Hole," June 3) - part of a long-run pattern that Mr. Spitzer finds "terrifying."
While today's economy is in poor shape, and likely to be made worse by Uncle Sam's frenetic fiddling, the only thing terrifying about the data that Mr. Spitzer presents is Mr. Spitzer's shabby understanding of them.
For example, the evidence that he offers for America's alleged transition away from goods production is the decline in the number of manufacturing jobs. Yes; such jobs are disappearing. But the value of total U.S. manufacturing output is rising. In fact, in 2007 it was (as it has been for decades) the largest in the world, at an all-time high of $1.831 TRILLION - accounting for more than 20 percent of the entire world's manufacturing output. The country generating the second-largest flow of manufacturing output in 2007 was China, which produced output valued at $1.106 trillion – only 60 percent of the U.S. total.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Editor, Slate
Dear Editor:
Eliot Spitzer asserts that the U.S. economy is in a "transition away from actual goods production" ("Green Shoots, Red Ink, Black Hole," June 3) - part of a long-run pattern that Mr. Spitzer finds "terrifying."
While today's economy is in poor shape, and likely to be made worse by Uncle Sam's frenetic fiddling, the only thing terrifying about the data that Mr. Spitzer presents is Mr. Spitzer's shabby understanding of them.
For example, the evidence that he offers for America's alleged transition away from goods production is the decline in the number of manufacturing jobs. Yes; such jobs are disappearing. But the value of total U.S. manufacturing output is rising. In fact, in 2007 it was (as it has been for decades) the largest in the world, at an all-time high of $1.831 TRILLION - accounting for more than 20 percent of the entire world's manufacturing output. The country generating the second-largest flow of manufacturing output in 2007 was China, which produced output valued at $1.106 trillion – only 60 percent of the U.S. total.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Saturday October 24, 2009 at 11:55am