Mark Perry (citing my Mercatus Center colleague Dan Griswold) clearly explains that so-called “trade deficits” are generally cause for celebration rather than for consternation. Here’s Mark’s conclusion (original emphasis):
The continual focus by politicians and the media month-after-month on the “trade deficit” is misplaced, and the ubiquitous media reports that describe “trade deficits” disparagingly miss the bigger picture of international trade. Rising exports and rising imports are both signs of an expanding, healthy economy, and tracking the total monthly volume of international transactions (exports + imports) is, therefore, a better measure of the importance of international trade to our economy than tracking net exports (exports – imports).
Immigrants not only increase the number of people employed; they also increase worker productivity in general. A study from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco found that immigrants stimulate investment, in turn producing efficiency gains and boosting income for immigrants and natives alike.
Speaking of immigration, Shikha Dalmia is dismayed by Trump’s Orwellian machinations on this front.
Finally, the Oxfam report mentions nothing about what would be the quickest way to reduce world-wide economic inequality: let people emigrate from poor countries to rich ones. Michael Clemens, an economist at the Center for Global Development, has written that wealthy nations’ tight restrictions on immigration leave “trillion-dollar bills on the sidewalk.” Allowing people to move to jobs in which their productivity would soon multiply by fivefold or more would make everyone better off.
George Will discusses some economics of professional baseball.
Can Americans’ health-care system be improved by Amazon?
