Perhaps the most immediate, and obvious, observation is the simplest: We must change our national savings rate. To rebalance the U.S. trade position from deficit to balance requires that the sum of private and public savings match domestic investment.
In other words, a country must not produce less than it consumes if it wishes to balance its trade position with the rest of the world. During the 2000s, Germany’s personal savings rate increased and is currently about double the U.S. rate.