If a country consumes more than it produces, it must import more than it exports. That’s not a rip-off; that’s arithmetic.
If
we manage to negotiate a reduction in the Chinese trade surplus with
the United States, we will have an increased trade deficit with some
other country.
Federal deficit spending, a
massive and continuing act of dissaving, is the culprit. Control that
spending and you will control trade deficits.
The only solution to trade deficits is to reduce the budget deficit. But, of course, this president and his Republican Congress just massively increased the budget deficit with their tax bill which cut taxes on corporations and the plutocracy in order to be able to throw up their hands in alarm next year and claim they have no choice but to cut "entitlements" - i.e. medicaid, medicare, and social security - in order to reduce the budget deficit. Their hostility toward the middle class and the poor is limitless, especially the people of color.
