主题：exports are costs -- meokey

These arguments miss a key point of international trade theory: exports are costs. The reason we participate in world markets is to obtain goods that we can’t easily produce for ourselves; exports are the price we pay to foreigners in exchange for the imports we want. In a perfect world, we would obtain an infinitely large quantity of imports in return for an infinitely tiny amount of exports. So, a rising dollar is to be welcomed.

Although this idea is familiar to economists, some readers may find it surprising. So here’s a simple parable to explain why it’s true.

Suppose that we live in a country where everyone eats only doughnuts. We’re self-sufficient except for one thing: we need to import bananas to make banana cream doughnuts. Happily, foreign producers are willing to exchange truckloads of our trees for truckloads of their bananas. So some workers spend their time cutting down trees to send abroad, and the rest of us work on making doughnuts.

Now let’s suppose that foreigners are no longer satisfiedwith trees: they will now only exchange bananas for furniture. Some workers must therefore stop making doughnuts and start transforming trees into furniture for export. Even though the national accounts would record an increase in the value-added of exports, this development is bad news. The reallocation of workers away from doughnut production means that we make and consume fewer doughnuts.

What happens if foreigners go back to accepting trees for bananas? The workers who had been making furniture for export can go back to making doughnuts. Although the national accounts would show a reduction in export volumes, we are clearly better off: doughnut consumption will have increased.