2011's Export Story

2011 was not a good year economically-speaking…unless you were an American company selling things overseas.  In that case, you were involved with one of the few bright spots in the total picture.

The Economix blog at NYT has a pretty important nugget and chart on the subject:

Foreign buyers purchased more than $2 trillion in goods and services, the first time exports have topped that threshold. And those exports accounted for almost 14 percent of gross domestic product, the largest share since at least 1929.

 

The weak dollar has enabled US commodity producers (ag, metals, oil) to offload their goods elsewhere.  The fact that demand here has remained so slack for so long has been a contributing factor toward businesses here getting good at selling overseas.  Silver lining?

Source:

The Quiet Driver of Economic Growth: Exports (Economix)