trade deficit

I was recently cleaning out some old files and came across an article on trade deficits and surpluses that I wrote in 1988 while working as an economist with the…

Question: When is it acceptable for a Republican president to openly brag about liking taxes? Answer: When the taxes are directed toward American consumers and are called tariffs. Last week,…

Walmart has low prices for all kinds of products, from clothing to shoes to groceries and almost everything in between. And the fact is that those who benefit the most…

There is a puzzling term regularly being used by members of the Trump administration that, they argue, is the ultimate goal of their protectionist trade policies. The phrase is “reciprocal…

In my last Update, I pointed out that when trade is free, whether the value of imports exceeds the value of exports or the value of exports exceeds the…

One of the great myths bought into by much of the general public, politicians, and media pundits is that trade deficits are bad for the economy. The idea dates back…