” Clyde Prestowitz simply doesn’t understand the basic economics involved.”
You’re only fooling yourself. Clyde Prestowitz was Ronald Reagan’s chief trade negotiator and has been writing on these issues for over 30 years.
Exports are goods and services. Capital transactions are a separate category that offset export imbalances. Sales of Treasury debt to China are recorded in the Treasury International Capital recording system. Conflating the two is a not so clever attempt to muddle the issue of exports.
So does it really matter if I have a “trade imbalance” with my barber and my local grocery store?