Comment by aerotwelve
4 days ago
The premise of the formula is flawed. There is nothing inherently unfair about a trade deficit between two countries. There's not necessarily anything nefarious going on if the United States doesn't buy the same amount of goods from Botswana as they might purchase from the United States within any particular year.
But why should there be a structural, long-term deficit between big diversified economies like the U.S. versus EU?
I mean, if me and my neighbour both print currency on our home laser printers and buy goods from each other, am I being taken advantage of when I end up with more goods and he ends up with more paper?
If you focus on your “comparative advantage” of printing paper and your friend on his comparative advantage of making stuff, then in the long run he’ll win because your economy is fake and his is real.
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