Is Economic Stimulus Futile?

“Like Southern Europe, the US economy must move away from the consumption/housing-led growth model of the last decade. President Barack Obama has encapsulated this challenge by setting the goal of doubling US exports over the next decade. But this is easier said than done. The structural shift towards exports will be difficult and time-consuming mainly because producing the high-tech goods that the US should be exporting requires a skilled workforce, which has largely been lost and cannot be re-created overnight. During the ten years preceding the peak of the bubble in 2007, about four million jobs were lost in the US manufacturing sector, whose share in total employment fell from more than 17% to 12%.”