International Trade and Finance Speech
Macroeconomics consists of the large scale economic factors such as interest rates and national productivity. International trade, finance and exchange rates are a large part of this study. Today, we will dive into the basic definitions and descriptions of simple terms and concepts as they relate to macroeconomics.
“The trade balance is the difference between a country’s exports and imports” (Colander, 2010). When a country is exporting more than they are importing a surplus is created, so there is more production than consumption. The opposite is true for a trade deficit. A country that imports more than it exports is running in a deficit; consumption is more than production.
An example of a product in the United States with a surplus is oil. Seven years ago the U.S. imported about two-thirds of their oil consumption. By 2014 it is expected that the U.S. will only import 6 billion barrels of crude oil per day; this is about one-third of what the country uses and by 2020 U.S. oil production will exceed Saudi Arabia’s (Phillips, 2010). The problem is that the oil produced in the U.S. is high-quality crude and the oil imported is heavy, sour oil. Since the refineries are currently equipped to refine the heavier oil the U.S. has a surplus of the high-quality crude. One would expect lower oil prices with the surplus, but as the current gas prices reflect this is not the case. While the process and the politics involved have many components not discussed here the crux of the situation is that a surplus of an import can cause business and domestic consumers to suffer.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the value of all goods and services produced in one country during a one year period. GDP is made up of consumption of goods (expected to last three or more years such as food and
