1/ When a country imports high-value and know-how intensive goods, it is worth asking "what do we provide in return".

If the answer is "low value goods" or "we export labour" or worse of all "we go into debt", it is time to reexamine policy.

Such imbalances tend to end badly.

2/ Both observation and theory support this. Witness the hard times developing world commodity exporters go through periodically, both the coffee and the oil exporters.

Advanced nations export the same *kind of goods* they import with other advanced nations - Japan and Germany.

3/ Global trade needs principles of balance and symmetry.

Balance is the short term notion "we won't go into debt".

Symmetry is the longer term notion of "similarity of capabilities".

Both are important for harmony among nations.

4/ Today's global order essentially "allocates" the "high end jobs" and "menial jobs" to nations on outdated notions of comparative advantage, as if the banana growers son or daughter do not want to invent drones.

This hurts *both* rich and poor nations.

5/ Poor nations are harmed by a perpetual debt trap as coffee and banana exports never seem to pay for smartphone imports and wild swings in commodity prices land them in periodic crises.

High value goods producers have more market power so prices don't swing as dramatically.

6/ The lower half of the population of the richer nations suffer too, because of their inability to participate in the riches of the high-value producers.

Rising homelessness in the San Francisco bay area combined with extraordinary wealth illustrates this dramatically.

7/ This is the fundamental issue facing the global economy and the problem has been getting worse as imbalances get more extreme.

Trade that indebts the other party can never be called free trade, I call it "bonded trade".

Reforms are vitally needed.

8/ At a personal level, rebalancing can start with high value producers locating many more jobs in rural areas and spreading the wealth locally.

This brings balance back at a very local level, which is vital.

The "high end" vs "menial" jobs distinction also tends to go away.

9/ The drone designer and the banana grower need to hang out more. Their kids need to go to school together. Attitudes and values need to get exchanged.

Thats what restores balance to the system and it starts at the local level.

This is the foundation of spiritual economics.