OTOH, Asian economies with a trade deficit > 5% GDP imploded in the 90s. Neither Europe nor Asia is a control group for the US economy, so it is difficult to draw any conclusions without considering the many other contributing factors. That being said, it's hard to see how running a trade deficit of this magnitude is healthy.
OTOH--isn't their some old joke about economists and OTOH????
Its all beyond me...you get myopics like Krugman and optimists like Kudlow.