Trade deficit

“The entire world is cheating us and laughing at us.”
“Obama is running a trade deficit of half a trillion dollars. Other countries are laughing while they take our money”.
“Only I can fix it”.

So spoke the moron-in-chief as he promised to reduce and eliminate America’s trade deficit. Informed people knew he was just spouting b.s., just like his b.s. of eliminating the debt. In any case, most economists would not see a trade deficit as something bad as such. Nevertheless, his Trumpkins believed him. Mr. Tariff Man said “Trade wars are so easy to win”.

Well, well, when the trade deficit ballooned by 40 billion in 2017, he could say still that it was Obama’s fault, and his own policies (tariffs) needed to sink in. And now the 2018 numbers are out, and the trade deficit of $621 bn exceeds Obama’s by 100 bn. Okay, he always said he could do much better than Obama. Even worse (or better), the goods deficit, which is what he railed about the most, reached 891 bn, the highest in history. Yes, only I can fix it.

After all the China bashing and tariffs (“the Chinese are paying billions into the Treasury”), the trade deficit with China reached a record 419 bn. Now the Chinese must be really laughing. And with The Dotard desperate to make a trade deal with them to have something to show before the 2020 election, expect the Chinese to quietly take all they can, while the Dotard loudly declares victory.  The deficit will go up further. Hey, 1 trillion is in reach. Nobody in history ever managed that. Only I can do it.

The new deal is likely to be a lot like the new NAFTA, which Trump calls USMCA, Canada and Mexico refer to as NAFTA 2.0, but economists call NAFTA 0.8 or so. As I wrote earlier, except for creating space for Wisconsin to have a few more cows, nothing really changes. It would be a deal that Modi could love. Cows for all. Maybe now that Dotard has India in his crosshairs, the 2 would be dictators can talk about cows.

This is what happens when economic reality hits economic ignorance. As I said, most economists are not bothered by the trade deficit, and when the tax cut was passed, many predicted it would balloon the trade deficit. These things are interconnected. But the Stable Genius of course knew more than the Economists, like he knew more than the Generals, or the Intelligence people.

Don’t expect him to tweet about the Great Trade Deficit. Maybe he will pivot to talking about his Geat Nuclear Deal with his love Kim. Oops, did you say that didn’t happen......