Thursday, December 30, 2004

Are Imports Inferior Goods?

This passage about the dollar in the FT is interesting:

Clifford Bennett, chief strategist at FxMax, was even more bearish, seeing a "real risk of a blowout" in the US current account deficit in the first half of 2005 as the falling dollar forces US consumers to spend even more on imports to maintain their standard of living.


I think it's been a standard bit of stock trivia in any Econ 101 class for years that "rising incomes tend to increase imports." The idea being that as your country gets richer, a greater proportion of income is spent on imported goods. But, I think Mr. Bennett is suggesting this relationship has flipped for the US -- as purchasing power/real incomes fall with the falling dollar, consumers will switch away from domestic spending and purchase more imports.