Calling it &quot;world manufacturing&quot; is misleading when you look at exports and imports as a share of GDP.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;graphics8.nytimes.com&#x2F;images&#x2F;2012&#x2F;11&#x2F;19&#x2F;opinion&#x2F;111912krugman3&#x2F;111912krugman3-blog480.jpg" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;graphics8.nytimes.com&#x2F;images&#x2F;2012&#x2F;11&#x2F;19&#x2F;opinion&#x2F;11191...</a><p>As you can see, other than a brief Marshall-plan spike in the 40s, exports and imports as a share of the US economy didn&#x27;t return to pre-Depression levels until 1974. And right now, the US does a whole lot more trade than it did after World War II.<p>It makes intuitive sense our &quot;starting position&quot; wasn&#x27;t that great, because poor, blown-up countries don&#x27;t make great customers. The US economic success after World War II was domestic, not trade-based.