[NVDave]

That’s like predicting if you walk off the edge of a building, you’re going to fall.

Any downturn in economic activity will result in imports decreasing, and since a huge chunk of the imports are directly consumed by consumers (oil/oil products and Wal-mart crap), it was a pretty easy prediction to make; so my response to this prediction is “Duh, no, *really*?”

Here’s something the free trade mob didn’t predict: that our current account deficit, plus absurd Keynesian spending during a recession would lead to our trading partners calling for the US dollar to lose reserve status.

[1rudeboy]

Any downturn in economic activity will result in imports decreasing, and since a huge chunk of the imports are directly consumed by consumers (oil/oil products and Wal-mart crap), it was a pretty easy prediction to make; so my response to this prediction is “Duh, no, *really*?”

Here’s something the free trade mob didn’t predict: that our current account deficit, plus absurd Keynesian spending during a recession would lead to our trading partners calling for the US dollar to lose reserve status.

Can't speak for Keynesians, I'm not one myself (it's more in line with protectionist thinking), so you can't stick that failed philosophy on the "free trade mob." In any case, the numbers show that our trade deficit (in goods) falls during recessions, and rises when our economy is expanding. That's a far cry from your contention that we should return to the boom times of the 1930's, when we ran a trade surplus (generally), and all allegedly shoud have been well.