WTO says China has surpassed US as #2 Exporter

The World Trade Organizations says the China has surpassed the US and is now the #2 exporter in the world.

Not too long ago, the #1 exporter in the world was the United States. Now the #1 spot belongs to Germany and China has now taken over the #2 spot, leaving the US in third place. While many journalists and pundits lay the blame on many factors such as cheap labor in China and other things, I think the answer lies much deeper and is much more frightening for the future of the US. For decades the US currency has been slowly devalued through the actions of the Federal Reserve System. The Fed has been steadily increasing the supply of US dollars through a process of credit expansion since its inception in 1913. Over the decades US citizens have found that it doesn't pay to save money because the value of any savings is eroded over time by the inflation of the currency by the Fed. It has gotten so bad that the US savings rate is now averaging below 1% of income, and at times falls into negative. (Borrowing exceeds savings.) In contrast the Chinese savings rate hovers in the neighborhood of 50% of income. The effect that this has on the economy is dramatic. As the US capital stock ages, there simply isn't enough savings available to replenish it. Old factory equipment can't be updated and replaced fast enough to allow productivity increases to keep up with wage hikes forced by inflationary "cost of living increases," and union contracts.This essentially prices US labor out of the international market. Another effect the Fed policy has is to make importing goods cheaper than making them at home. People on low or fixed incomes, the poor and the retired, find they have to shop at "dollar stores" for some of the necessities. Most of the items found in dollar stores are imported, many from China. As this process continues, jobs flow out of the country along with large amounts of US currency. Countries such as China accept and hold this currency because it is the defacto international standard of trade. But confidence in the dollar is slipping worldwide, and soon there will be a major crisis when foreign nations stop accepting worthless US paper in payment for the goods they ship. Then all those dollars in international circulation will come home to the US setting off an hyperinflation like that seen in Germany in the 1920's. Our economy will go into free fall and we will see a depression that will make the Great Depression of the 30's seem like a birthday party. We need to implement several reforms immediately. We need to abolish the Fed, reestablish a gold standard for our money, withdraw from all the so-called international free trade agreements, GATT, NAFTA, CAFTA, etc. I am a firm believer in real free trade, but these so-called "free trade agreements" actually create regulated trade under conditions that are not favorable to the US. Once we have sound money and can engage in real trade with the world on an equal footing, we must begin to reestablish the old habit of saving money. Savings represents wealth created but not consumed. Saving is the ultimate source of all capital and capital is the key to increasing productivity. Productivity is in turn the key to prosperity. Only one candidate in the current presidential race is recommending the necessary reforms - Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas). Virtually all the other candidates support the current paradigm that has caused the decline in US manufacturing and exports.