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Well Germany has been so fortunate as to be a member of a currency union, where they are the leading industrial base, thus giving them a artificial low currency
by Seanambers 7y ago
Well Germany has been so fortunate as to be a member of a currency union, where they are the leading industrial base, thus giving them a artificial low currency as an advantage as well. This helps manufacturing quit a bit.
- imtringued 7y agoThat's completely insignificant compared to having the dollar as the global currency in the oil trade. Countries that sell oil for dollar can only spend those dollars on American products. It's as if the USA produced all the oil in the world and sold it for profit. Meanwhile Germany's unfair advantage is that it's prices on products are slightly lower than they should be.
- AdrianB1 7y agoIt is actually the other way around: this keeps the US dollar artificially high, hitting on exports, and it is completely not true that these countries can only spend dollars on American products: they can spend on anything they want, the dollar is just a currency, you can use it to buy products from Russia, China or Nigeria.
- bluGill 7y agoThe US is a currency union and has been for longer. Most people forget that state originally meant the same thing as country
- jacobush 7y agoI agree on your first point, but not the etymology. Germany has a long federal history. The word "state" has been a little ambiguous for a long time.
- dotancohen 7y agoState was defined by political borders, country by geographical borders. For much of human history states were countries. The blurring of the meaning of these words I believe started around the 18th century as transportation, and thus the ability to rule further away, progressed. I agree that in today's colloquial usage there is little distinction between the two.