Perspectives
Its fashionable these days to talk about how Americas in the dumps. Stocks go up and down by a few hundred points every day – gyrating on the latest rumor. According to MITs Andrew Lo, since 1980, 10 of the biggest 20 daily upswings and 11 of the largest 20 daily drops since the beginning of 1980 happened after September 2008.
But the disconnect between stocks and company performance seems to be wider than ever. How so? A quick glance at second quarter 2011 earnings reveals that Americas business is booming and jimmy-crack-corn, stocks dont care.
There are three ways to explain the fact that companies grew earnings at 27 times the rate of U.S. economic growth:
Theyre exporting to countries in Asia-Pacific and Latin America where demand is much higher. Companies looking for growth ought to consider exporting and my new book, Export Now, co-authored with Frank Lavin, presents a method based on thousands of SME export success stories.
They sell commodities like metals or minerals with rising prices and growing demand, or
They make innovative products or deliver great services that people in the U.S. are buying at rates far in excess of the overall level of economic growth.