Guest Column: The change we need: Reverse the U.S. trade deficit

While the country is basking in anticipation of change, which means something completely different for some than for others, I'm still wondering when we are going to address the real issue: the trade deficit. It is arguably the single-greatest problem we have to solve as a nation.

Our trade deficit is more than $2 billion per day. Combined with our federal budget deficit, this cost increases to a combined amount in excess of $3 billion a day. Quick math shows our country is losing $1 trillion of wealth every single year.

GOP pundits are quick to point out that the national debt has grown from $5 trillion to $10 trillion under the Bush administration during the last eight years. If this issue is not addressed, it will become a worse problem during President-elect Obama's term.

How much worse? If for instance the national debt doubles again during the next administration to say $20 trillion, and we have to pay a nominal rate of 5 percent on that debt, the interest alone would cost $1 trillion a year, or about $2.7 billion a day.

Obama's campaign message, "Change: Yes We Can," resonates with a lot of people - clearly, he won the election. One of the biggest changes we need to make is our dependence on foreign oil. It's a change that affects both the health of our environment and our trade deficit. We need to take the alternative sources that we already have, including wind, solar and hybrid technologies, and make those the energy standards - not the alternatives. These changes call for better education of our current and future work forces, and we need to implement these solutions swiftly and without hesitation.

There are a lot of questions these days about government spending, capital gains and taxes in general. What really constitutes an economic stimulus package? If we as taxpayers are ultimately paying for the $700 billion bailout package - officially called the Troubled Asset Relief Program - then who is providing us with economic stimulus? The real answer is us, since nearly 70 percent of the U.S. economy is driven by consumption.

Economically, the unfortunate fact remains that this great country, which was the manufacturing superpower of the world just 90 years ago, now imports more than it exports. Over time, we have become a more educated and sophisticated country, and yet we have morphed into a service-based society. But how much service are we all really receiving, and worse yet, who is providing those services?

Many believe that America's last great resource is our knowledge and ingenuity. Agreed. But take a look at who's occupying our universities. According to the Institute of International Education, the number of international students attending U.S. universities has increased by more than 7 percent to 582,984 students in just seven years. Our weak economy and the exchange rates have made U.S. schools a bargain for students from abroad.

So I ask, where are we headed? I hope for the long-term sake of this country the message that prevails during the next administration is not "Change: Yes We Can" but "Change: Yes We Will."

We need to get back to our roots of innovation, creation and exportation. Doing so will create more jobs for Americans on U.S. soil and help to solve our trade and federal deficits. As I once learned in a business economics course, great economies do not thrive by everyone doing each other's laundry.

Skip Motsenbocker is chief marketing officer of SignalPoint Asset Management in Springfield. He can be reached at smotsenbocker@signalpointinvest.com.

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