Would Someone Please Explain

[Ponca Dan]

I saw this headline on Drudge and read the article. So now I’m very confused. The economically brilliant Donald Trump and his equally brilliant economic team have assured us the only way America can become great again is by reducing the trade deficit, especially the trade deficit with China. After less than a year of Trump’s brilliant economic leadership we are told the economy is roaring along like a freight train, unemployment is down, housing starts are up, projected growth around 3.3%, etc. The economy is a rocket ship thanks to Trump’s brilliant economic leadership! So that must mean his primary economic target must be in full play, right? His brilliant economic leadership must have brought the trade deficit to a complete halt, right? Well, maybe not (see the link). How is this possible? America can never be great again as long as we have a trade deficit. That’s the PRIMARY theme of the economic policy he ran on. Can someone explain how the economy is going so well if the deficit is getting worse?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...cit-is-widest-since-january-on-record-imports

 

[07pilt]

I saw this headline on Drudge and read the article. So now I’m very confused. The economically brilliant Donald Trump and his equally brilliant economic team have assured us the only way America can become great again is by reducing the trade deficit, especially the trade deficit with China. After less than a year of Trump’s brilliant economic leadership we are told the economy is roaring along like a freight train, unemployment is down, housing starts are up, projected growth around 3.3%, etc. The economy is a rocket ship thanks to Trump’s brilliant economic leadership! So that must mean his primary economic target must be in full play, right? His brilliant economic leadership must have brought the trade deficit to a complete halt, right? Well, maybe not (see the link). How is this possible? America can never be great again as long as we have a trade deficit. That’s the PRIMARY theme of the economic policy he ran on. Can someone explain how the economy is going so well if the deficit is getting worse?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...cit-is-widest-since-january-on-record-imports

Ponca Dan, this seems like a fake question. I'm as big of a critic of Trump as most, but I don't recall him campaigning on eliminating the trade deficit as necessary to economic growth. Even if he did he was clearly mistaken and confused by the word "deficit" as it always sounds like it is bad to have a deficit.

 

[Ponca Dan]

Ponca Dan, this seems like a fake question. I'm as big of a critic of Trump as most, but I don't recall him campaigning on eliminating the trade deficit as necessary to economic growth. Even if he did he was clearly mistaken and confused by the word "deficit" as it always sounds like it is bad to have a deficit.

I guess we remember things differently. Throughout his entire campaign he railed against the various free trade agreements, bellowing they were giving our trading partners an unfair advantage, costing us jobs and creating trade deficits, and he, by God, was going to do something about it. On his recent Asia trip he told China and other countries he intended to change our free trade agreements into what he called "reciprocal trade." Dan Griswold, on his website "Mad About Trade," discusses this exact subject. I'll try to put up a link when I get a chance. Don Boudreaux, on his website "Cafe Hayek" says he will be posting on this in the very near future.

 

[Ponca Dan]

I guess we remember things differently. Throughout his entire campaign he railed against the various free trade agreements, bellowing they were giving our trading partners an unfair advantage, costing us jobs and creating trade deficits, and he, by God, was going to do something about it. On his recent Asia trip he told China and other countries he intended to change our free trade agreements into what he called "reciprocal trade." Dan Griswold, on his website "Mad About Trade," discusses this exact subject. I'll try to put up a link when I get a chance. Don Boudreaux, on his website "Cafe Hayek" says he will be posting on this in the very near future.

Here’s Griswold’s piece:

https://madabouttrade.com/trumps-ef...l-trade-threatens-u-s-leadership-21f2f531b906

 

[07pilt]

I guess we remember things differently. Throughout his entire campaign he railed against the various free trade agreements, bellowing they were giving our trading partners an unfair advantage, costing us jobs and creating trade deficits, and he, by God, was going to do something about it. On his recent Asia trip he told China and other countries he intended to change our free trade agreements into what he called "reciprocal trade." Dan Griswold, on his website "Mad About Trade," discusses this exact subject. I'll try to put up a link when I get a chance. Don Boudreaux, on his website "Cafe Hayek" says he will be posting on this in the very near future.

Oh yeah clearly he hates "losing" on trade, but I don't think he ever claimed that we wouldn't have GDP growth without eliminating trade deficits. He also said all that trade stuff because his consultants told him it would play well in WI, MI, PA, OH (Narrator voice: it did). I doubt he believed it. He is a fay New York liberal that has turned into a Fox News grandpa he wants tax cuts, regulation cuts, and for people to stand for the National Anthem

 

[Ponca Dan]

Who knows what that blowhard believes. He may have made his anti-free-trade rants in order to get votes. What politician in history has not? Did you read the Griswold piece? He went to Asia and told them he would require an economic tariff tit for tat. That sounds like he means it. And it will be very bad economically. Economically the man is a blithering idiot. The so called resistance movement has the media and the public focused on countless inconsequential BS while ignoring the giant gorilla in the room: his idiotic rants against free trade. If he gets his way we will regret it, but not until it’s too late.

 

[07pilt]

Who knows what that blowhard believes. He may have made his anti-free-trade rants in order to get votes. What politician in history has not? Did you read the Griswold piece? He went to Asia and told them he would require an economic tariff tit for tat. That sounds like he means it. And it will be very bad economically. Economically the man is a blithering idiot. The so called resistance movement has the media and the public focused on countless inconsequential BS while ignoring the giant gorilla in the room: his idiotic rants against free trade. If he gets his way we will regret it, but not until it’s too late.

He told people in Asia that because the last person he spoke to that day was Steve Bannon. If the last person he spoke to that day was you he would be asking them how to remove trade barriers. He is very impressionable. Either way I don't think free trade is as important as you think it is.

 

[Ponca Dan]

He told people in Asia that because the last person he spoke to that day was Steve Bannon. If the last person he spoke to that day was you he would be asking them how to remove trade barriers. He is very impressionable. Either way I don't think free trade is as important as you think it is.

I laughed and agreed with you until your last sentence!

 

[07pilt]

I laughed and agreed with you until your last sentence!

Gross trade (imports + exports) is only 30% of GDP. Net trade (Exports - Imports) is -2.8% of GDP. You would have to assume hugely elastic foreign demand (and very inelastic domestic supply) for US exports to conclude a change in trade policy would have a huge impact.