I've heard terror tales about trade deficits all my 50 years, and it looks to me like we're living pretty d@mn good.
Said the lazy squirrel...with no stash of nuts (no savings)... to all and sundry as Winter approached....
I still have to point out that an $800 billion dollar trade deficit translates into a loss of between $1.6 and $3.0 trillion dollars in economic activity inside the U.S. each year. Literally tens of thousands of communities are losing out on tens of millions of dollars in economic activity and the revenues that activity would support.
Why don't we have money for new roads, school bands, sports programs...
Yes, we can point to a good life. I still ask, how much better it could have been with all that money circulating inside our nation.