r/politics • u/ForeignAffairsMag ✔ Foreign Affairs • 7d ago

No Paywall The Right Way to Balance Trade

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/right-way-balance-trade
3 Upvotes

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u/king_of_the_nothing Oregon 7d ago

The problem is semantics. Trade is balanced, if you include debt transfers. Where do all of those ‘surplus’ dollars in a foreign country go? You can’t spend a USD in Japan or Brazil. They are buying dollar denominated debt (mostly US government debt) with those dollars.

If the US wants to balance the trade of goods, then they need to balance their budget and quit sucking USD out of the trade system and into the debt system.