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My friend Jack Wenders [2], Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Idaho, notes this passage in a recent AP report:
The U.S. must borrow more than $2 billion per day from foreigners to finance its huge trade deficits.
Jack’s reaction to this typical way of framing the so-called ‘trade deficit’ is noteworthy:
Maybe a better way of putting this would be to say: "Foreigners must sell the U. S. more than $2 billion per day in goods and services to finance their huge purchases of U.S. assets."
Exactly correct.