Good article. The entire concept of a “trade deficit” is single entry accounting and a statist’s dream.
People make so much noise about their silly ‘trade deficit’ and have no idea what they’re honking about.
Get your “free trade” kool-aid here!
I have ‘trade deficits’ with my grocery store, Walmart, Bushmaster, Smith & Wessen, Cabelas, Rush 24/7, etc. etc.
A mortgage they can pay is the only legitimate debt a family should have. Do you run your own household economy at a deficit? Are you in hock to credit cards companies to the tune of $300,000?
Perhaps you are.Perhaps you are a credit junkie as you issue your inane “free traitor” commentary from Panama. Where you bugged out to. You don’t even live here. Lots of offshore banks in your new homeland where American tax dodgers deposit money
This is a strawman. It isn't the inaccurate accounting of trade imbalances between the US and specific countries that's the problem. The problem is the total trade imbalance itself, which is real. Just because one country doesn't make 100% of the iPhone does not mean it's not an import.
“So the entire $178.96 estimated wholesale cost of the shipped phone is credited to China, even though the value of the work performed by the Chinese workers at Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. accounts for just 3.6%, or $6.50, of the total, the researchers calculated in a report published this month.”
How convenient because they’ll never see the entire $178.96 after the currency moves.
The article contains this:
“So the entire $178.96 estimated wholesale cost of the shipped phone is credited to China, even though the value of the work performed by the Chinese workers at Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. accounts for just 3.6%, or $6.50, of the total”
That’s not a full accounting of the money flows. For example, if China imports $100 worth of parts from America for that phone then that transaction would also be on the trade balance sheet and would reduce that $178.96 to a net of $78.96.
The question is, when everything is put on the balance sheet, what are the net flows.
I didn’t get much from the article.
Came to see protectionists’ tears. Left satisfied.