Jack by the hedge
Safely Ignored
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2009
- Messages
- 23,198
Anyone have an idea why he's so hung up on 'trade deficit' idea in the first place? Is it just one of those random ball bouncing around in his pachinko machine brain, or are there adults behind him who push and reinforce the idea for some reason?
It's not his idea. It's a rather arbitrary way to measure trade in goods which tends to make things look unfair on the US and is just a handy excuse to levy more tax on imports.
Of course goods manufactured in a wealthy, high wage country will cost more than those made in a poor, low-wage one. It's obvious and unsurprising that poor countries will sell more stuff to the US than they can afford to buy in return. Yet this is Trump's measure of unfairness, to which he retaliates with tariffs.
The authors of this idea think it will promote growth in the US and that will eventually more than cancel out the downside which is that these tariffs are a tax increase. They're taxes levied on Americans buying imported stuff, and paid into the US treasury. I have a suspicion they will turn out to be wrong, but <shrug> I'm no economist.
