In an article of the guardian, US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner asks countries with an export surplus, like my home country Germany, to consume products from the US to balance demand. A second request to China to stop keeping its currency unnaturally low does not apply to Germany (we are slaves of the Euro Zone ourselves).
(I know, this statement simplifies greatly)
My problem is: What does he want me to consume from the US? Just recently I asked the US electronics company Vizio to sell me one of their big screen TVs in Germany. This was their answer:
“I apologize but at this time we have not expanded to Germany.”
OK, then it’s going to be a Samsung TV for now.
Next try. I wanted to purchase frames for a lot of my pictures which have non-metric sizes because I brought them while I was in the US. But no ebay-seller would ship to Germany.
Well, I’ll ask a neighboring frame maker to produce them locally for me then.
And then, of course, there are American Cars I could buy. But really, do you think it makes sense to import a gas-guzzling Ford F150 when I can buy a nice reliable sporty BMW 118d for less (top speed 130 mph, around 50 mpg)? And, it can handle the Autobahn much better too.
So, having lived in the US and liking lots of things there I am open to purchasing more US products, but they are either not available in Germany or they are just so bad that they don’t compare to items I can buy over here.
It is kind of sad that so many US companies don’t bother expanding internationally, or don’t know how to do it.
I am really sorry, Mr. Geithner, but your request is unrealistic.