2016 U.S. Merchandise Trade Deficit: $734,316,300,000

CNS NEWS ^ | February 7, 2017 | Terence P. Jeffrey

[xzins]

Sounds like someone invented the perpetual motion machine.

[Lord Castlereagh]

Not really.

[xzins]

Whatever the answers to those are, we do know that the overall trade deficits are in the hundreds of billions with China and 60 billion with Mexico.

[xzins]

I don’t see the advantage of a fruit stand buying 4 times the merchandise than it sells.

[Lord Castlereagh]

The first time you said “goods” Now you are specifying, I believe, specifically the goods that it sells. Those are 2 diff scenarios. Friedman was referring to the first.

[1rudeboy]

So, if you run a fruit stand, you’re ahead if you buy more goods than you sell? That doesn’t makes sense to me.

How about you, specifically? Do you buy more goods then you sell?

[sparklite2]

I have a monstrous trade deficit with Wal-Mart, DirecTV, and Amazon. They never buy anything from me, yet eat up most of my budget. Someone ought to do something!

[COBOL2Java]

"Trump's fault!"

[aquila48]

That’s the only place you can spend dollars (except for a few places that it’s also legal tender).

Eventually they have to come back here unless you just collect them.

[aquila48]

And who builds those homes and where does the material comes from?

[aquila48]

I don’t think they pay their workers with dollars.

[aquila48]

They spend most of the dollars buying US treasuries - IOW, they fund our budget deficits.

They also buy houses here as well as other assets, which help our economy.

[baltimorepoet]

Drywall from China, anyone? LOL.

[raybbr]

That’s the only place you can spend dollars (except for a few places that it’s also legal tender).

Really? No other country will take U.S. dollars? Ever heard of a currency market?

[Lord Castlereagh]

PLEASE keep following that train of thought! I PROMISE you will learn something very important.

[aquila48]

And who do you blame for that? Who is the sap in that transaction? Buyer beware.

[mlo]

"So, if you run a fruit stand, you’re ahead if you buy more goods than you sell? That doesn’t makes sense to me."

If you can buy more goods than you need from what you sell, then you're ahead.

[Roger Kaputnik]

Materials come from a mixture of places: US, Mexico, Canada and of course China.

New home builders are a mixture of US-based companies and Chinese.

But the Chinese are not just purchasing new homes. They are purchasing everything they can get their hands on, and they are paying with CASH. They don’t want to invest their money in China so they come to the west coast and buy real estate.

[NohSpinZone]

OK, all this says to me is that President Trump has a lot of bargaining power when it comes to foreign affairs and trade. Clearly, these countries need us way more than we need them.

[ConservativeMind]

What Milton did not take into account was that our society, largely due to a loss of Christian work ethic and the addition of the Welfare State, leaves our nation at a true financial disadvantage. Add to that our policy is to over tax and over regulate businesses and individuals, while not getting anything back from which to recover those practices via an excise tax, and we wind up with sheer madness and a cycle into a hole in the ground.

Taxes are a penalty. Taxing imports is reasonable, as it appears taxing reportable work is also “reasonable.” But, which is healthier for a country, to penalize cheap imports that didn't employ a US citizen or pay taxes, or to penalize someone who does reportable work (and not tax welfare, etc.)?

Please tell us, oh wise one. Oh, and no country has "free trade" with any other country, today.