Is the US trade deficit a bad thing?

The U.S. has a $566 billion dollar trade deficit with the rest of the world. But does that hurt the economy? Christine Romans investigates.

[grass.dihenia]

Warren Buffett did an article describing how trade deficits are not good for the nation going into debt. When the nation begins to sell its productive assets to finance consumption, the long term economic health of the debtor nation is jeopardized. Borrowing money by exchanging bonds for manufactured goods will only weaken our currency over time relative to others (Buffett also wrote about this phenomenon).
Who takes CNN seriously anymore?

[TheFoxisintheHouse]

😂
A trade deficit = me spending some of my savings on some very very cool 😎 stuff.
Don't be jello

[lesschilling]

So, ummm.... we still have a "trade deficit"! Gotcha!

[johnsradios]

Not a fan of Trump but a 566 billion a year trade deficit is not good. We don’t make anything anymore. Where is our middle class now ? Exactly

[charlesbrightman]

Question:
Money is usually half of the trade equation in our money driven economy. When one nation sells something to another nation who pays money for that something, then how is there a 'trade deficit'? Trade was fair and balanced because both sides of the trade equation are considered equal.

Now sure, 'somethings' that one nation sells to another nation most probably won't necessarily be equaled by 'other things' that the other nation sells to the previous nation. But, so what? One nation received goods and/or services and the other nation receive money for those goods and/or services. Trade equation is basically always equal.

It's like people who utilize GDP as a total measure of a nation's economy. GDP is 'new things' only. A total economy has 'non-GDP" things in it too (used items, black markets, etc). So I believe that people who utilize GDP as basically a sole metric to measure a nation by is not really dealing with total reality.

Maybe if economist got their 'head out of their butt' we would have better economies???

And consider also:
a. If species from this Earth do not get off of this Earth and out of this solar system, then we are ALL going to eventually die with no conscious entity left to care any of us even ever existed in the first place, much less whatever anybody did and/or didn't do, including whether a nation had a trade deficit or not.
b. Space travel has gotten more expensive just in my lifetime. What exactly is space travel going to cost in the next one hundred, one thousand, one million years from now? Economic inflation just might kill us all. And in part, we have economists to thank for that with their view concerning inflation as well as politicians who spend so much resources on the 'military industrial complex' and 'spy industrial complex' and less and less on the 'space industrial complex' that just might save any of us and/or our descendants one day. Can anybody say 'dumb asses we are'?

[soraandmypronounsarebleepb]

HAHA the graph she shows is pointing out that at the peak of the deficit is when the 2008 crash That was fun, lets make the deficit larger.


The deficit is only good for the time being because oil is only traded in the U.S dollar, so in a way China is forced to sell us cheap shit in order to get our U.S dollars.... Meanwhile we do not have to actually create any products in order to give our dollar "real" value.... We just print them, and then they have value because the oil they can buy. Do you really think our dollar would carry the same value if it was not the main trade for oil?? Probably not, considering we offer half of what China offers.
Logic says that the country that offers the most will have the higher value currency, because the DEMAND for that currency is Right now, with dollar back by oil the U.S dollar is in high demand. Thus adding value.




Why do you think China buys U.S currency?? It is to keep OUR value higher than theirs. They even admit this.... Why would they do that? Well, the higher our value, then the less dollars needed to buy oil.

[jakejones]

It's neither good nor bad. It's meaningless, whether on a personal level or on a national level. All a trade deficit means is that one party pays money to another party. Basically, what happens in EVERY transaction.

[kynchan]

If the deficit is paid for by increasing debt or asset depletion. It's not good.

[Octavus]

*This Public Service Message brought to you by friends on Wall St.*

[jackwindensky]

You failed to explain how more money going out is better than more money coming in. Although to be honest, I have only taken a Economics 101 course. So what do I know.

[larryrios]

This is probably one of the most misinforming videos I've ever seen from CNN. I didn't vote for Trump and I will probably wont vote for him, but I studied economics and I know that having a large debt and a huge trade deficit is terrible. It is ok to have a trade deficit of 30B. That is normal, but having a trade deficit of 850B is ridiculous!!

[m.s.]

Cancer News Network always critiquing and taking apart Trump's policies.

[gambart]

Stupidest analysis ever. Trade deficit means you have to borrow money to pay for it, which increases country's debt and makes you poorer.

[angelp]

Im so confused! Why a trade deficit is a problem?

[Interstellar]

Did not outweigh the pros and cons, this is propaganda!

[DanBlabbers]

LOL and they love cheap imported goods

[josepho]

Services don't hire as many as manufacturing does. And one manufacturing job supports eight others so this is bullshit

[tetonscot]

If a trade deficit is a good thing shouldn't Canada and Mexico and all the other G7 countries and China have one one too? We are offering them the chance now to have a trade deficit with the US ..what else can we do? Please talk to them CNN ..before you go out of business.

[mylordshiva]

Import Problems Global Economy But Only Us Export Or Import Any thinkg Not A Problems Because Us Own Currency Is Dollar

[khairulnaeim]

Cheap goods you got cheap quality 😂 made from anything