International sales, domestic jobs
Instead of encouraging multinational business, President Obama and his advisers offer their now familiar tirade against companies "shipping jobs overseas." In fact, companies do build overseas operations, and hire foreign workers, to tap offshore markets. But those operations also produce jobs here at home.
William Melick, an economist at Ohio's Kenyon College, notes that the 3.8 million offshore jobs created between 1997 and 2007 were complemented by 2.1 million produced by those same firms inside American borders.
Melick calculated that for two-thirds of U.S. based multinationals, jobs in foreign affiliates and the U.S. parent company move up and down together; only in a small minority does foreign employment rise at the expense of U.S. jobs.
The federal international affairs budget -- funding everything from agencies supporting U.S. exports to aid to poor countries -- faces sharp cuts from Congress this fall. Part of that is a natural, and necessary, part of any serious effort to rein in government spending. But there is also the temptation -- at a time of economic crisis -- for lawmakers to turn inward rather than seek economic opportunity in continued American leadership abroad.
Part of the international affairs budget (which, contrary to public perception, is only 1.5% of the budget) supports exporting companies, like the Overseas Private Investment Corp., providing risk insurance and capital, the Export Import Bank to help finance exports, and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency that hosts trade missions. And humanitarian aid can redound to America's benefit.
"If done right, it spreads American influence in a positive way," Florida Senator Marco Rubio told a recent town hall, citing the widespread goodwill in Africa that resulted from President Bush's anti-AIDS initiative, credited with saving 4 million lives.
Despite comments like those from a popular Republican tea partier, parochialism is settling in on Capitol Hill. "I go to the Hill and ask what they're doing to make America more competitive," Zoellick says. "They're not looking beyond our borders. The private sector is so much farther ahead than the public sector in recognizing what's happening."
And there's someone else that's farther ahead on that score: China.