Talk:Globalization and trade deficit are connected says Greenspan

I really want to edit this page, although it is already published. So I wll put my comments here. if I don't get any objections, I will make the changes.

I can't really edit Greenspan's quote here, but since the government has a number of deficits there ought to be something to indicate that this refers to the current account deficit. I propose bracketing. "The rise of our [current account] deficit and our ability to finance it appears to coincide with a pronounced new phase of globalization that has emerged in the past decade".

There is no wikipedia entry for current account deficit, but one ought be created. I will go do that after this. I presume Mr. Greenspan's comments made this clear in context. But it woudl certainly be a blunder to presume that the US budget defecit, for example, was a "market phenomenon"!

In this part of the article. "In the speech Greenspan said neither interest rate increases nor cuts in the US fiscal deficit would result in large reductions in the current account deficit. These are the three standard ways the government controls the economy." I added the 'neither' for empahsis. But more importantly, the previous sentence lists only two tools for controlling the economy. I looked back to "targeting one or more policy variables such as the exchange rate" to figure out that exchange rate is the third tool for influencing the economy. But it took me multiple readings to get this.

I propose

"A nation's current account balance thus is essentially a market phenomenon that is not readily subject to rebalance by targeting one or more policy variables such as the exchange rate," Greenspan said. In the speech Greenspan said that likewise, neither interest rate increases nor cuts in the US fiscal deficit would result in large reductions in the current account deficit. These (exchange rate, interest rate, fiscal deficit) are the three standard ways the government controls the economy.

Ed