Posted on 01/15/2018 9:26:59 PM PST by cba123
The trade deficit in the US widened to USD 50.5 billion in November of 2017 from an upwardly revised USD 48.9 billion in October. It is the biggest trade gap since January of 2012 as imports reached a record high on rising demand for consumer goods, cell phones, crude oil and semiconductors. Exports recovered form October's fall and touched a record value on higher sales of capital goods, aircraft and cars. Balance of Trade in the United States averaged -14032.83 USD Million from 1950 until 2017, reaching an all time high of 1946 USD Million in June of 1975 and a record low of -67823 USD Million in August of 2006.
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(Excerpt) Read more at tradingeconomics.com ...
Politics and economics are one and the same. I had a prof tell me that buying something is voting with your money.
Fixed it.
The solution is easy. A 20% import tariff.
I bet these figures do not count in the money illegals send home nor the drain of cash sent out in the drug business.
I’m no expert, but exporting jobs and industries and exporting goods are different things. Exporting goods means that there is foreign demand for our products. This is good for American industries and workers, as it keeps them employed. We export jobs and industries because of simple economics: Because of taxes and wages, it costs more to produce here than in Mexico and China.
Trump has taken a big step to rectify the first.
As the U.S. economy strengthens, profits and interest rates will rise. These increases will make it more attractive for foreigners to invest in the USA. And as net foreign investment increases and increases, the so-called “trade deficit” will go up, not down. You may as well get used to it.
>> I bet these figures do not count in the money illegals send home nor the drain of cash sent out in the drug business <<
So what?
If illegals and drug dealers send dollars back to Mexico, what happens to those dollars? Dollars aren’t legal tender in Mexico, so they will eventually find their way back into the streams of commerce and investment between Mexico and the USA. If the Mexicans use these dollars to buy U.S. merchandise or services, our merchandise trade deficit will go down.
But if the recipients down in Mexico use their newly received dollars to hold U.S. investments (bank accounts, equities, real estate or whatever), then the trade deficit will be pushed upward.
Or if the Mexicans just put their new dollars under their mattresses and leave them there indefinitely, the “M1” component of the U.S. money supply will contract slightly, with no big effect on the trade deficit.
In other words, it all depends.
For example, we have COC types advocating for functionally open borders. It might help their bottom line short term, but long term they might as well be operating in Venezuela. Even now there's a radical fringe from south of the border, from SE Asia.
Sometimes we have to save businesses from their own short mindedness.
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