[expat_panama]

If someone gets a chance, please explain to the group why trade deficits are bad --but lets skip the nonsense about somehow all the dollars in the U.S. go to China and never come back.

[SMM48]

The author is a certified a-hole.

[Paladin2]

The Fed is more than hsppy to sell dollars.

[expat_panama]

Top'o'the Morning!  The S&P sagged a tenth of a % but the NASDAQ dropped 0.6% --not to worry, volume was weak.  That and our gold & silver are still sideways.  Futures seem to see stocks up +0.33% but w/ metals -0.53%

Everyone must be holding their breath for tomorrow's rate news, this morning it's just Export Prices ex-ag. and Import Prices ex-oil.

Elsewhere:

Keynes: Time for the Thinking to Rise from Dead? - Larry Elliott,Guardian
In Age of Trump Is Free Market Ideology a Bad Word? - Ray Keating,RCM
Here's What's Killing Low-Income Americans - Peter Orszag, Bloomberg
Trump Rally Is the Biggest Post-Election Since Hoover - Sue Chang, MW
Trump's Fiscal Package Promises More Expansion - George Perry, RCM
Social Security's 'Permanent Save' Is Massive Cuts - Michael Hiltzik, LAT
Saudi Will Never Be More Than Big Oil - Yoel Guzansky, Washington Times
Using the 'Magic Pill' to Humanize Free Trade - Russ Roberts, Medium

[NautiNurse]

He had me going just fine until this sweeping statement without backup:

...America actually manufactures more than ever today, but it simply requires fewer people.

Then I really started to question the other statements. The argument might be enhanced with more discussion about steel quality from China. Do the Chinese make better steel?

Longshoremen? Really? Of all the American workers, these thugs are some of the least defensible. Aren't these the goons who make about $125K for pushing a button every 20 minutes? The ones who foul up all the import works every time they walkout on strike?

On second thought, the author has got us to thinking. Good on him.

[McGavin999]

I was watching that Wall Street show on FOX the other day. I could not believe how ignorant those people are. What can’t they understand there is a difference between an American company that moves out of country specifically to get cheap labor and then imports it into America and a company that just imports.

Also nobody cares if they move to China to build stuff for China, we only care if they move to China and then want to market it here.

If these guys are too dumb to get this they are way overpaid

[SkyPilot]

Says the author as he drives his British built Jaguar to work and texts on his iPhone made in China.

[knighthawk]

The RR Merlin is what the P-51 Mustang made it a winner, no one was complaining then!

[USS Alaska]

The particular reason, be it price, quality, completion date or image, is moot.

No. the reason is not moot. Most china products are bought in the USA for one reason, price. And the reasons they are cheaper, reflect currency manipulation and import taxes and tariffs on our shipments to china.

It is legalized stealing from our country and its citizens.

If you choose to ignore this fact, I'm glad you are in panama, and take that asshole C. with you.

I was once a supporter of C. but he became so full of himself, that he rivaled bill christol for asshole of the year, 2016.

[libh8er]

The Rolls Royce Trent series engines are the quietest in their class and in performance comparable to the GEs. I remember the first time I flew in an A380 some years back. As the plane was accelerating down the runway with four Trent 900s at near full power, all I could hear inside was a faint whisper. I was very impressed.

[odawg]

“If someone gets a chance, please explain to the group why trade deficits are bad”

Why aren’t all the nations in the world in friendly competition trying to accrue trade deficits, if it is such a non-thing, or possibly a good thing?

The reason China manipulates their currency is to avoid having trade deficits.

“No one, not even President Donald Trump’s policies and his customs agents, should stand in the way of such customer/manufacturer decisions, made by anyone.”

Correct, but in accordance with the historic economic policy that made the United States the economic powerhouse of the world, sometimes they can pay a tax, as we all do, when we purchase something.

“A Trump-style tariff placed on Rolls in the 1990s might have been cheered, but it would have likely prevented the company from having many of the seven thousand employees they now have in this country.”

It would more likely have hastened the event.

“Government tampering always has unforeseen consequences.”

Certainly, as in the NAFTA agreement, which is government tampering on steroids. One of the consequences of NAFTA that definitely was NOT unforeseen was American manufacturing rushing into Mexico, taking jobs and wages with them, the very REVERSE of the tedious explanation given of what happened when Trump bought British engines.

“To be honest, trade deficits are mathematical facts, but they can be misleading, or meaningless, figures in the first place, as they only include a small part of the reality equation.’

Let me ask again, why are all nations seeking to avoid trade deficits and correspondingly trying to get the upper hand in trade deals?

“Damn all this winning.”

So dramatic, which is why I could not read all this crap. I am sure that American manufacturing is greater than fifty years ago simply because our population has doubled. But if the manufacturing had stayed here, it would be much greater.

All these Never-Trumpers will contort themselves into pretzels trying to deny the fact that the United States has lost incredible numbers of manufacturing jobs in the past fifteen years, and they were not robotic jobs. These are jobs requiring workers who are paid wages.

[trebb]

...A Trump-style tariff placed on Rolls in the 1990s might have been cheered, but it would have likely prevented the company from having many of the seven thousand employees they now have in this country...

Glaring false meme (outright lie) since Trump proposed the high tariff for companies that decided to leave the U.S.

So many pundits that can't make a rational argument without adding some lies to the mix....

[Western Phil]

” never come back”

Not quite true. They just got done buying a pot full of soybeans at a fairly decent price.

[central_va]

Gee Trade deficits aren’t bad? Really? WTH? Like explaining why bleeding to death isn’t bad.