Trade Balances within Monetary Unions

Abstract

No data are available on the internal balance of payments of American states, or regions. If such data existed they would, for sure, show large disequilibria among the American states or regions, with surpluses in some and deficits in others, just as they do in Europe. For example, when the car industry got into trouble, Michigan, where much of car production was located, must have experienced a major deterioration in its trade balance with the rest of the United States. The states that have started to produce energy from new sources such as shale must have experienced, initially, large deficits in their accounts with other states, because of the capital that they must have needed to import in order to develop the local energy sources. In time the balance will shift in favor of these states, when they start exporting energy on a large scale.