but chicago is going to have its own export strategy. and ex-im is going to be a key partner in helping us achieve that. as i said, we are tenth as it relates to cities that export, and yet we're the third largest city in america. we have huge potential because our base is low but our skills are great and our capacity are great because we have all the pieces. they've never been assembled under a single strategy. so i'm honored, and it's not usual that you would have a mayor come here. may say something about my life. i checked into my hotel last night, i turned on the tv, and i got caught watching president clinton on c-span. that may tell you something that goes on in a mayor's life, watching your former boss on c-span, taped. but that said, he laid out what he thinks is a vision for the country. today there are about 50 cities in the world that are the main competitor and economic drivers. chicago is one of them. to seize the next decade for the people of the city of chicago for greater job growth and economic opportunity, we, too, hav

exports to foreign buyers. others simply don't get why america produces some of the best products in the world need any help at all. our role is to help american companies compete in foreign markets where financing isn't credily available or affordable. we give u.s. companies the competitive edge they need. i know it's dark in here but look around this room. we have quite a few people here today, more than a thousand. each and every working day of the year we create or sustain more than 1,000 jobs each and every working day. last year alone there was 290,000 jobs, a record for the export-import bank. ex-im creates job, pays for itself and creates money for the tax dollar. we have created $1.9 to reduce the federal deficit. behind each number is a story about a business or entrepreneur trying to sell more of their goods to the rest of the world. i want to tell but one of those companies, a company i had the chance to visit in december 2009 during the very first hours of the first blizzard of that christmas seaso

so we're still the largest exporters of goods and services and capital, but china and germany do export more merchandise than we do now. in germany, particularly, has a much higher percentage of its gdp in exports partly because it is probably the most successful country in the world in involving small and medium-sized businesses in exporting. which is another reason that we should support fred and the xm bank, because of what they do there. now, there are places where we've fallen behind. the quality of our infrastructure is no longer competitive. we rank 24th in the world in the computer down load speeds off the internet. 24th. south korea ranks first. their download speeds are four times america. we rank 15th or 16th in the world now in the percentage of our young adults getting university degrees partly because of the way it's been priced out of the market. i do believe that the student loan reform, which the congress passed and the president signed, when fully implemented will remedy part of that because it will allow all graduates to pay their loans back as a percentage of their i

so the american exports, united states exports, almost $200 billion to mexico every single year. somebody says that china is quite important, economy is growing really fast, crucial. a lot of american exports used to go to china. but we mexicans are importing more american products than chinese or japanese people combined. so we are more important destination for american products than china and japan together or the rest of latin american countries or europe. we are really fans of american products. and that is important to talk to the people here in the united states when we are facing these blocks against free trade and other important issues. well, that is more or less in your document is by far more clear, but mexico's rank as an export market for the state. and you can see for a lot of states here mexico is the first or the second most important market for american products. that is quite important. finally, some comments about migration. this is a very tough issue, very sensitive. we said here the mexican workers are like invading the united states or something like that.

exports to foreign buyers.others simply don't get why america, that produces some of the best products in the world, needs any help but all. our role is to help american companies compete in foreign markets where financing is not readily available or affordable. we give u.s. companies a competitive edge that they need. last year alone, we provided $33 billion, a record amount, an extra financial support to 3600 companies. nearly 90% of that was to small businesses. i notice go dark in here, but look around this room. we have more than 1000 people here. each and every working day of the year, we create or sustain more than 1000 jobs, each and every working day. last year alone, that was 290,000 jobs, a record for the export-import bank. ex-im create jobs, pays for itself, and earns money for the u.s. taxpayer. over the last five years, we have delivered $1.90 billion to the u.s. treasury. that is a pretty good track record. but it is lot more than just a number. because each number is a story about a business or

exports.its annual meeting thank president fred hochburg argued against what he said as an effort by lawmakers to quote gut the agency. will also hear from white house adviser valerie jarrett, and the ceos of companies john deere and orbital. this is an hour and 40 minutes. >> please welcome chairman and president to the export-import bank of the united states, mr. fred hochburg. [applause] >> good morning, and thank you for coming. on behalf of president obama and the entire administration, we want to welcome you to the 2012 x. in bank annual conference. the president has asked valerie jarrett to represent him today and you'll be hearing from her shortly. she's going to take about this export. it's not a piece of equipment that got left her by mistake. we are joined today by people from over 40 countries, a record, from businesses, large and small, government officials and foreign buyers. you're here to buy, sell, the network. i have a feeling a few of you here but just to listen to president

we export from the u.s. i think one of the things and why there could be a manufacturing renaissance here is there is this combination of both going through the '09 financial crisis, every one of the companies here 18 free market society made tough decisions very quick, very lean, very efficient. combine that with the situation with the dollar right now being very competitive on global markets, it is a very, very positive time. we have a number of plants where we make very similar or identical products. large products, 2 to $400,000 products. we'll have the same product made in east moline, for example, illinois, that's made in brazil that's made in germany. right now exiting the factory, the highest wages actually are in germany, but very close to the second highest are in the u.s. but by far the most competitive exiting the factory is our plant here. and it's because our labor force is very efficient, it's because of combination of a number of factors. having said that, there are a number of other issues l

and equality of you are exports you can see those pies in which by the 80s. 60% of mexican export used to be oil. but today oil represents only 16% of our export. the rest is nonoil products which is another expression of mexican competitiveness. lat lal trade of the united states you can see in the year 2009, it's increasing dramatically. you can see the pretrade agreement and you can see it dramatically increase in american and mexican by lateral trade. i wanted to point this out, today, for instance, mexican manufacturers, if you observe this figure, you are exporting 60% of manufacturers. now another way to see the mention and increasing competitiveness is our market share in the american economy. but mexico is winning market share because we are passing from almost 70% in 93 to almost 12% in 2011. with that it's clear that we are not only increasing our export, but we are increasing the proportion of mexican products here in the united states. that implies that a lot of mexican jobs, a lot of american jobs, i'm sorry, depends on mexican imports. actually mexico is the second large

that brings me to the export issue. one of the reasons we need to do a better job with our training programs is so that we can get more workers into the tradeable sector of the economy. one of the reasons we need more trade agreements is, you know, we take forever and a day to decide to approve one of these trade agreements, and meanwhile, the people we're trying to make a deal with have made five other deals. there is only so slow you can go in until you make the perfect the enemy of the good, and that bothers me. look what happened with this correa deal -- korea deal. i applaud the approval of that, the colombian one, the panamanian one, but it took us five years to get the deal passed with korea, during which they entered into an agreement with the eu, america, and others, with a whole network that we then entered into. so, we were falling instead of leading. the following -- following instead of leading. we have to see the export import issue in the context of that. if you want to be competitive, you have to be. is

that treaty proposed global principles concerning the export of conventional arms. and over the next decade or so these ideas were further developed by ngos and supportive governments, taking into account a lot of regional initiatives that were developing at the same time. so years of discussion outside the u.n. led to the passage of a u.n. general assembly resolution in 2006 that was entitled towards an international arms trade treaty, establishing common international standards for the import/export and transfer of conventional arms. this was the u.n., really, the first toe in the water, so to speak, on this issue, and the resolution called for the u.n. secretary-general to kind of seek views of member states and to establish a panel of governmental experts. to see if this idea was even feasible. that group concluded its work in august of 2008, and recommended that maybe the u.n. should dabble a little bit more. over 100 member states actually presented their views to the secretary-general, which is unheard of. to have that high of a level of participation, and so

when gabon gained independence in 1960, timber exports represented 75% of total exports. day,he timber percent becae of the importance of oil. ( chain saw dron then stops ) ( splintering and crashing ) narrator: nevertheless, the exploition of the forest is stilln important part of the economy providing 15% of the country's jobs. cil weth from which plywood is madeoume gabon practically has a world monopoly ithis type ofood. only a part of the forest is exploited for the moment. e system operates ploita granted by the state to companies, often foreign, e system operates ploifor a fixed duration. but the forest wealth is exploited inefficiently as there is practically no value added within the country. today, the largest areas being worked are situated in the center of the country. this has been made possible by the construction of the trans-gabonese railway. begun in 1973, the railway was completed in 1986. in order to lay the 400 miles of track, gigantic construction sites and enormous investments were necessary. the initiators of the project imagined the railroad as the backbone of a

one, i don't work directly work in export control reform. i have colleagues who do. we talk with them. so they inform what we're doing in the arms trade treaty in terms of the substance of the discussion we've had at the prep coms and at the negotiation. at the negotiation, it's not going to be a case of the tail wagging the dog, not going to be the way the negotiation happens that's going to directly determine what the u.s. is going to do in the export control efforts. it's going to be the other way around. what we do in the att reflects what is going on in the export control reform discussions. in terms of what's likely to come out of the export control reform, it's going to be i hope a streamlined more efficient less burdensome regulatory regime for u.s., you know, for u.s. companies or for companies which do business in the u.s. but it's -- and the effect it's going to have on the international arms trade i think that it remains to be seen. it certainly is not going to expand it the international arms trade. this is about how the u.s. goes about regulating the co

which means increase exports. in more common language that would be well appreciated in my native state of arkansas, if you got 4% of the world's people and you want 20% of the world's income, you better sell something to somebody else. let me put the issue at hand for the 3m bank, what should it be doing in some sort of larger context. if we want this to work, we want to double exports in five years and then keep growing as a trading country and doing it in a way that is fair to our trading partners and helps them to grow their economies and to generate employment for their people -- because if you really look all over the world, the thing that people are crying for everywhere in the world is a decent job with a reliable income that allows people to support their families -- we have to start here with an economic policy that deals with our long-term fiscal challenges and still makes the necessary investments for a productive future. we have to produce competitive interest rates. they've been zero now, but when ec

national export initiative. or three quick things i want to announce as well. one of the things we've done at xm bank, those of you who work at the bank, obviously you've been working hard on this and our customers most importantly, is is a greater customer focus. we announced yesterday, al is albright from this podium, global credit express, a new small-business lending product for loans up to half a million dollars. we have launched that, and we're looking -- when we see you next year that we will have rolled this out in a robust fashion. so i'm very excited by that. and importantly, just this week, we've been working for the last year with secretary lahood and his colleagues at the maritime division at department of transportation and have come up with a new plan. this is really going to work mostly for many of our larger exporters where we will have greater transparency and more information on how u.s. exports that are shipped on american-flag carriers can be done more economically so we can also make sure w

terms of the range of of exports, expor, bualso iterms of the range of countries it exports to.ost dynamic country in latin america terms of rnational tr rror: rort gwynne,ar from the university of birmingham in england, has been studying the roots of chile's dramatic economic success and the effects of this rapid change on the chilean people. chile strengthened its market economy and export programs in the 1970s and '80s under a repressive military regime now as a democracy, its annual imports and exports were each around $18 billion by 2001. oe pos e uc of imar economicctivities, meaning e harvest ofrops or ts e for instance, chile produces one-fifth of the world's copr. this is a satellite image of the escondida mine. che extracts resources from an incredible range of natural environments. the barren ground cover surrounding the mine reveals one of the driest places on earth-- the atacama desert. gchficot is much like north america's, the abut in reverse. here, it's the north that is mostly dry and brown, is mbut as you movsouthica's, thtoigher latitus,e. the green color of t

>> the import/export bank plays a very big role in exports. >> no, i understand that. but they gave solyndra $10 million without due diligence. let me go on. let me ask you another question. you've been chairman of the board of bright source energy. >> i was for a time, yes. about nine months. >> now that's another company that this goes into my idea of developing jobs in this country could be done through our natural resources and not feathering up a lot of these solar panels and solar thermal and wind turbines. for example, when you were ceo, didn't that get $1.6 million from the department of energy? >> i'm sorry. when i was the ceo -- i didn't get the last part of your question. i was the ceo -- >> i was told the loan guarantee to the company you were ceo was $1.6 million -- billion, rather. but i don't think you got all that. do you remember how much of that you got? >> i am afraid i don't. >> yeah, i understand. i understand. did you -- do you remember anything about the loan guarantee that the department of energy gave the company that you were ceo, bright sourc

average 35% more than nine- export related jobs in the -- non-export related jobs in the united states. since president obama took office, there have been a whole raft of studies that show that americans who work in the charitable sector of the economy are likely to not only get jobs with higher starting pay, but pay the increases with the growth of the company. people who work in the non tradable sector are much more likely to get jobs with not only lower starting pay but without pay raises that keep up with inflation and economic growth. i say that because most of the discussion here in washington -- and i have participated in it, and i'm a democrat, so you know what side i am on. but a lot of this has been about tax fairness, income inequality and the extraordinary gains of the last decade, in fact, the last 40 years, according to those of us who are in the top 1% of earners. i think that is an important debate, but wherever you come down on that, the most important thing is to keep growing the economy. if you do not grow the economy, it does not matter how you divide the shrinking

exports. last year alone, foreign companies pumped 50 billion euros into the country, more than two times 2006. >> but that success can come at a cost. as we hear in this report. >> when the reasons for brazil's strong economy is as well of natural resources. more and more offshore oil fields are being discovered and exploited in its coastal waters. the ore deposits are in excess as well. brazil boasts the second largest reserves of iron ore after australia. because of raw material prices are on the rise, brazil's economy has grown faster than more established, industrialized countries. in recent years, brazil's gdp has been expanding at an average rate of 4%. that outpaced germany and the u.s. the german economy has grown at 1.5%, the u.s. economy only at 0.5%. but there is a downside. get numb -- economic crises in industrialized countries are prompting more and more investors to put more money into brazil. now brazilian products are comparatively expensive on world markets. the country is n

-- to help them boost their exports is the export-import bank. ex-im's mission is simple. it facilitates exports. it could be tributes to job creation in the united states. it does it through loans, through guarantees, through insurance. it fills in gaps in trade financing at no cost to taxpayers. the private market, the market sometimes doesn't deliver in these situations. the export-import bank can fill in some gaps and help companies that have the ability to grow and export to actually do that. the ex-im bank generates revenue to the u.s. treasury, yet despite this record of success, exports and jobs are at stake because congress cannot agree to ex-im reauthorization. the ex-im bank's lending authority expires may 31. we know that companies that export products, create jobs, pay higher wages and are more likely to be able to remain in business. export-supported jobs linked to manufacturing already account for an estimated 7%, one out of 14 of ohio's total private sector employment. so one out of 14 ohio workers is linked to export. more than 1

goods and services exports. the national export initiative has ambitious goal of doubling exports by the year 2015. which is right around the corner. if economic growth in the euro area declines, so will the demand for u.s. products and services. how will we continue on a path to achieving the nai's export goal with reduced european need. i think people don't understand how important it is for us here in the united states for our businesses, for our small business, certainly on long island we do a lot of exporting. how do you see that future coming? >> you're absolutely right that europe has a big impact on the united states. because it's so large, and because we have such a huge network of trade and financial ties with europe. the effects come through a variety of channels. if they grow more slowly, or fall into recession, then the direct demand for things american companies create and produce is reduced. that hurts us directionally. the effect goes beyond that because when europe slows the rest of the world sl

our experience with export, import based export financing has been more limited. i think the first major transaction that orbital did was about five years ago. our direct experience the more limbed. i would say over the last few years several business pursuits that fortunately had happy endings for us, export import was a terrific partner. and from what i've heard about cycle time and so on from years past, it seems the improvements have been significant and those are very much appreciated in our business and i've heard comments by some of the other u.s. satellite company executives that bear out our own experience. so the trends sure seem to be moving in a good direction. >> let me -- we're winding down our time. i want to ask a big summary question. because behind all of these debates over competitiveness, you certainly see it in the debate over export finance. it's a real debate on the appropriate role of government and the government business relationship. if i go back to this harvard business school study that i'm mentioned at the outset. it was quite interes

export market.his remarks are just under an hour. >> good morning welcome i haven't heard a welcome like that for a head of state here in a long time, indiscriminate appropriate. it's wonderful to see also, see all of you for such a timely conversation on the united states and mexico and are critically important economic partnership. there are a number of people here today who need to be recognized, and let me mention them very briefly. mexico's minister for foreign of affairs, and mexico's minister of the economy. and mexico's minister of finance, and the director general pro-mexico, carlos guzman. and, of course, our two esteemed ambassadors. and i'm going to introduce them separately, and i'm going off this group is the first of course is tony wayne, representing the united states in mexico city. and we are very pleased to have him. he is working hard and it is working very well but i'd like to purchase lopid of emphasis on my friend, october oh serve, who represents mexico here in the united sta

the cotton states exported just under 3 million bales of cotton. and the first 12 months of the war, south exported just over 50,000 bales of cotton. over two years as union forces occupied more and more southern coast, cotton exports fell further. to be sure the price of cotton also went up as exports declined, but if the price of cotton rose, so too did the price of goods south was trying to buy overseas. railroad machinery, modern breach loading rifles. in the end the south used stock piled bales as armor for coastal gun replacements. the economic historian, david sordham, concludes that the shortfall in revenues from exporting raw cotton rivalled, if not exceeded, the federal government's total expenditur expendituresexpenditures on its navy for the whole war. given that simple cost effective analysis sukts that the union blockade was worth the effort. so, what its the bottom line here? i think it is this. that despite the apparently porous character of the union blockade, the cumulative effect of the reduction in the south cotton exports, the

the export sales that it facilitated. we had an exporter database, direct marketing, and by 2000, we had 127,000 companies which were used to sign up almost 30,000 new customers. we did a lot this kind of work, and i was thrilled when president obama nominated fred opera because he had been at the sba. so i knew that we would try to help the big companies and they would come to us with what the deal was said it would be fairly straightforward. we did not have to do a lot of work. what we had to do was make sure that the medium and smaller companies that could and should be exporting would be involved in that. so yes, 80% of the banks financing by dollar volume goes to larger enterprises like boeing or caterpillar or jeep. -- ge. but the financing for smaller exporters has nearly doubled over the last three years. more than 85% of the transactions are done by the ex- im bank. and that is very important. one of the reasons this kind of work is not attractive to private banks is because of the transaction costs involved in s

will you accept this should also apply to the export of natural gas base products? >> what i'm trying to puzzle through in my mind as you're asking this is with regard to manufacturing, in every respect, i'm in favor of build it here and sell it everywhere. a case, if you'd take me deeper into the manufacturing component of what you're addressing, i will say if it's manufacturing, that's what i'm supporting and we're working hard in every way and i think you'd find, for example, that i've been very supportive, for example, with u.s. oil companies in supporting their overseas position. i very strongly support that. >> so some would argue that we should not export natural gas or natural gas refined products. you would accept if we have an abundance of natural gas, you would accept that or its refined products could be exported? >> yes. >> that's fine. i have plenty more questions but yield back for my colleagues. >> i thank the gentleman and recognize mr. mckinley for five minutes. >> thank you, madam chairman -- chairwoman. mr. secretary, i've got a question. back in

exports.big growth model, it will be challenging because as these companies have become so large, if you look at miss directory it will be very difficult to sustain those growth rates. and once you start going into the teens, you get scary. people look for the next big thing. >> you look ahead and wonder if we're going to get growth. >> thank you very much, doug and of course stan, we appreciate the insight today. we'll get a few insights here from the treasury department. freezing pay for the second straight year. they have yet to repair that i t.a.r.p. bailout monday. compensation for 69 other executives will be cut. >> and meek wallace who won his final emmy award at age 89 died saturday in the care facility where he had lived the last few years of his life. wallace helped make 60 minutes a top ten rated it tv show for 30 some odd years and he didn't just interview people, he interrogated them. his career began in 1949 and spending most of it at cbs. he was 93 years old. >> it was destinati

has allowed it to export. under strict under most favored nation status and allowed the currency to continue to be lower so china was able to accumulate trillions of dollars of reserves as a result of this. trade policy one of the things that we have to realize is we're talking about the chinese and american economy is that we really cannot be carful these two economies that these two economies are sharing a bed and the success of one will affect the success of the other ok but if we could you know if i could stay with you i mean but the ills of the united states and its economy in the euro zone that's something that china doesn't want to get itself installed in come on let's you know it's the international order has been established by washington and washington consensus and europe and it's been that way for centuries the chinese don't like it and they want to move away from it and why not go ahead. well in fact i'm not so sure they want to move away from and i think the the current system in place to trade s

to me that's largely driven by exports so i wouldn't say that you know the u.s. is headed towards decline in the same way that europe may have been after world war two and i think you one made a good point that there are a lot of other factors quality of life and standard of living. that are favorable for developed countries of us is going to maintain or improve ok martin but you know i think you we could spare to say of the last thirty over the last thirty years we're going to martin and the quality of life for the chinese is improved immensely i mean i think we tend to forget what it was like thirty years ago thirty five years ago go ahead martin. that's absolutely right a lot of people have come out of already five percent max and there were three if you go to china you know the living space there and then compare that to you know what kind of housing living standard you can buy in the u.s. but that's because they have more lending doesn't need better education in fact if you have you know educated people you know supposedly talking about how the education is

important customer countries for those german exporters.all that made for a pretty poor start into this post-easter week. >> thank you for the firm of frankfurt. let's take a closer look is some of the latest numbers. in frankfurt, the dax closed -- where is it? seems to be missing. well, we seem to have some technical problems. so we will continue on with some other german news. >> here in germany, the new pirate party and a libertarian free democrats are riding high in opinion polls but analysts say citizens are so dismayed with increasing government encroachments on privacy and freedom that there is a backlash against politicians calling for ever more surveillance. >> the pirates are pummeling the mainstream parties, including the environmental greens, with their anti-4, pro-freedom message. and that, even though they have internal divisions. >> it is not the pirates policies that have been making headlines recently, but their in-fighting. for example, about rules for party leadership. the discussion has been going on for weeks. but vote

our experience with export import-based, export financing has more limited. i think the first major transaction that orbital did was about five years ago. so, our direct experience is more limited. i would say, though, that over the last couple of years in several new business pursuits that fortunately had happy endings for us, export-import was a terrific partner. from what i heard about cycle time and so on, from years past, seemed like the improvements have been significant. those are very much appreciated in our business and i heard comments by some of the other u.s. satellite company skoo executives. >> we're winding down our time so i want to ask a big summary question because behind all of these debates over competitiveness, over export finance there is a debate on the appropriate role of government and the government ris relationship. i go back to this harvard business school study that i mentioned at the outset. it was interesting when they were asked what are your chief recommendations for improving u.s. competitiveness? and the top ones were sort o

they boost the economy by stimulating exports. the beneficiaries are the large corporations.ut it's a very different story for smaller companies. in the suburbs of seoul, small business owners gather outside an employment center in the early morning. they've come here to hire foreign workers. twice a year job fairs are held around the country for companies hoping to hire foreign workers. the workers are allocated on a first come, first serve basis, so many company owners line up overnight. but no matter how long they wait, there are rarely enough workers available. >> translator: we wanted five people, but we were told we could only hire three. we need workers but there aren't any. >> reporter: kim yung ho owns a wood processing factory on the outskirts of seoul. his company has been struggling in the face of fierce domestic competition. >> translator: large corporations and small businesses should grow in tandem. it seems only large businesses are operating at a profit. small companies like ours can't attract workers. >> reporter: at his factory, filipino employees do the mo

in the world is russia so if you have a combined iranian exports and russian exports and use that to back up the value of the currency that would be very powerful the lesson there is you know we talk about some of these in the book where we did that word game for the pentagon it was a financial war game or countries were trying to gain power against each other using for national weapons and we describe this there are many ways it can play out but what's interesting is that it's developing better but i don't think that's going to happen tomorrow even next year but looking out to three years whether it's a bird currency or i think even more likely the s.t.r. you know everyone knows the fed has a printing press and can print dollars but fewer people realize that the i.m.f. has a printing press they can print these so-called special drawing rights with the s d r's they can flood the zone with money so this game isn't over yet of course that would be every other thing is any question about that but the good don't underestimate the ability of the u.s. and the i.m.f. and the europeans and o

that brings me to the export issue. one of the reasons that we need to do a better job of training programs is so we can get more workers into the tradable sector of the economy. at one of the reasons we need more trade agreements is, you know, we take forever and a day to decide to do these trade agreements, meanwhile, the people we are trying to make a deal with have made five other deals. there is only so slow you can go until you make the perfect enemy of the good. that bothers me. look what happened with this korea deal? i applaud the approval, but it took us five years to get this free trade agreement passed with korea, during which the time this country entered into agreements with the eu, latin america, and others, with a whole network of trade agreements that we have been entered into. we were falling into leaving. i think that we have to see this ex-im bank issue in the context. if we want to be competitive, you have to be. it is just as simple as that you have to do what it takes to make sure that americans w

exports. and we want to do absolutely everything we can to help american companies do what i say every time and that is build it here and sell it everywhere. the national export initiative, and i think most of you know this, the president launched two years ago, at that time, it was an extraordinarily bold act to do that. the focus was doubling, doubling within five years u.s. exports were well on track down the road two years into that. plenty of challenges ahead. we have to intitans fy more of what -- intensify more of what we're doing. we have to make ex-im bank. if we can't have ex-im bank to go where we need to go, this will be in the direction of impossible. let me just touch on a few things. fred gave you a few statistics. i'm going to give just a few more. u.s. exports of goods and services, and i think this is a striking number, last year, 2011, hit an all-time record of $2.1 trillion. and just yesterday, we announced the year to date exports for january and february are up 8.5% over

exports. we want to do everything we can to help american companies do what i say every time, and that is build it here, and sell it everywhere. the national export initiative, and i think most of you know this, that the president launched two years ago which it at the time it was extraordinarily bold red the focus was dublin within five -- bold to do that. the focus was to double within five years. there are plenty of challenges ahead. we are on the road. we have to make ex-im bank possible. if we cannot have ex-im bank to go where we need to go, this will be in the direction of impossible. let me touch on a few things. fred gave you a few statistics. u.s. exports of goods and services, last year, 2011, hit an all-time record of $2.1 called -- trillion. we announced year-to-date exports for january and february are up 8.5% over 2011 levels. one other key point, from 2009, to 2011, the number of export- supported jobs increased to 1.2 million. that is a really important number in this economy.

but as tough export controls strangled u.s.space sales, china continued to advance in space, putting an astronaut into orbit by sending its students to study abroad and by buying, stealing and developing technology. it's time to allow america's space industry to compete for legitimate business under judicious regulation in a market that still considers made in america a benchmark of quality. thanks for joining us for "this week in defense news." i'm vago muradian. you can watch this program online at defensenewstv.com or you can e-mail me at vago@defensenewstv.com. i'll be back next week at the same time. until then have a great week.

cotton exports fell further. to be sure, the price of cotton also went up as exports declined, but if the price of cotton rose, so, too, did the price of those goods the south was trying to buy overseas. marine engines, railroad machinery, rifle cannon and only some of the modern breach-loading rifles. in the end, the south used its stockpiled cotton as arm or for its coastal gun replacements. they said the shortfall and southern revenues for exporting cotton rivalled, if not exceeded, the southern government's total expenditures on its navy for the whole war. given that relatively simple, cost-effective analysis suggested that the union blockade was worth the effort. so what is the bottom line here? i think it's this. that despite the apparently porous character of the union blockade, the cumulative effect of the reduction and the south cotton exports, the loss of its coastline and eventually the production of its major seaports seriously undermined the government and its war effort. if the blockade was never ai