Measuring Global Growth and Trade

Watch the video.

In the segment, Kurt and Robert Shanks, Ford Motor Company executive vice president & CFO, provided their perspective on the outlook on business and the economy.

In response to a question about how the economy's doing, Kurt gave his assessment by saying, "A big part of what's been driving UPS is this whole direct to consumer e-commerce so the consumer in the U.S. remains pretty strong. Increased wealth from housing and the stock market helps with consumer confidence."

Later in the interview when asked what the biggest difference between UPS now and when Kurt joined the company as a driver in 1977 is, he responded by saying "Clearly trade has become global. In 1977, the vast majority of our customers thought about the U.S. only as a market. One of the big priorities we have is helping U.S. businesses realize that 95% of the world's consumers are outside of our borders. So, it's a big issue for us as a business and also one of the critical things the U.S. economy has to do to prosper in the future, is to become more effective at exporting. Only 1% of the businesses in the U.S.  today actually export. So that's a big part for our inspiration, to make it easier and easier for companies to compete in the global environment."