The U.S. trade deficit

[Guest]

Halfway around the world, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross held a series of meetings with senior Chinese officials whom he continued to press on trade issues.

The Trump administration has notched a few minor wins (like opening up China to U.S. rice exports) following a Mar-a-Lago beach luau between the two countries’ leaders. But U.S. officials remain unhappy with certain Chinese trade practices like IP theft and steel dumping. Not to mention a trade deficit that reached $347 billion in 2016. 

They’ll have another go when President Trump visits China in November. Beach weather’s not in the forecast.

[admin]

Fast forward 2 years....

the growing U.S. trade deficit. It hit $621 billion in December, a 10-year high, despite President Trump’s intentions to reduce the gap through a more protectionist trade policy.

What does a widening trade deficit mean? We’re boosting imports relative to exports. Here’s what’s going on...

1. American consumers, feeling emboldened by tax cuts, upped their demand for goods from abroad.
2. Meanwhile, a strong U.S. dollar made domestic goods less competitive in the global marketplace.
3. Last, retaliatory tariffs placed on U.S. products (such as soybeans) contributed to a reduction in exports. Those duties came in response to the Trump administration’s own tariffs on other countries’ goods.  

Why it matters: Because trade deficits reflect sweeping, macroeconomic trends, most economists don’t lose sleep over them...except when deficits get so large that they take a bite out of GDP—which happened in Q4 2018.

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

I hope the light at the end of the tunnel is not  an oncoming train.

With 22 trillion dollars in national debt ... perhaps collision is inevitable.

All governments eventually die from internal mismanagement and "bread and circuses".

In 30 years I will be safely ... dead.

What? Me Worry?