Title: Everything Trump Says About Trade With China Is Wrong
Headings: Almost Everything Donald Trump Says About Trade With China Is Wrong
Almost Everything Donald Trump Says About Trade With China Is Wrong
Donald Trump’s China trade plan would make American families pay a lot more for food, clothing, electronics, and everything else that now says ‘Made in China.’
Review the Underlying Facts
Our Trade Balance With China Doesn’t Matter
China Is Having Yuuge Currency Troubles
Presidents Can’t Make Trade Policy Themselves
Trump’s Trade Policies Would Hurt the United States
It Would Hurt Businesses and Workers, Too
Trump’s Tariffs Would Be Immoral and Unconservative
At Best, This Plan Is Stupid

Content: For one thing, there’s actually a strong correlation between U.S. economic growth and an expanding U.S. trade deficit. As Cato’s Dan Griswold wrote: An examination of the past 30 years of U.S. economic performance offers no evidence that a rising level of imports or growing trade deficits have negatively affected the U.S. economy. In fact, since 1980, the U.S. economy has grown more than three times faster during periods when the trade deficit was expanding as a share of GDP compared to periods when it was contracting. Stock market appreciation, manufacturing output, and job growth were all significantly more robust during periods of expanding imports and trade deficits. Moreover, basic economics teaches us that trade balances reflect national savings, consumption and investment, not trade policy. Thus, every dollar traveling overseas to buy imports (in excess of our exports) eventually comes back to the United States in the form of investment, and our “trade deficit” is matched by a “ capital account surplus .” In other words, we buy goods and services from foreigners, and they buy an equal amount of our exports plus our financial assets (aka foreign investment in the United States). In this light, the U.S. trade deficit reflects little more than America’s longstanding comparative advantage as a global investment destination. Not so scary, huh?