Trade Deficits?

I'd never heard of Campaign For American's Future, but probably just as well, their understanding of economics is abysmal.

In modern terms, we would say that you were "running a trade deficit." How much damage do you think that "trade deficit" is doing to you and your ability to make a living in the future? How long do you think you would let that "trade agreement" continue?

I run a trade deficit with Safeway on groceries.  Am I harmed by a trade deficit with Safeway?  I cannot think of a single customer of mine from whom I buy anything in return.  Are all my customers harmed?

Title of the article had "free trade" in scare quotes, so I read the article.  It is true that the USA has really no free trade to speak of, but true free trade is not the agenda of these folks.  The agenda is mercantilism, protectionism, so welfare queens in USA need not make an effort to compete.

This continues because we, the United States, do not have national industrial/economic policies that recognize the U.S. as a country with national economic interests. Instead, our leadership and opinion elite have been convinced by the ongoing conservative campaign arguing that government should not "interfere," and that acting as a country to protect our national economic interests -- known as "protectionism" -- is bad. Meanwhile other countries are doing exactly that, and their economies and industries benefit from it.

So this crew is not interested in free trade, just making a special plea that a different set of welfare queens win. So that is one set of welfare queens, and here is their target, the other set of welfare queens. From the current head of the ExImBank:

“Our bottom line is American jobs, but we also know that the bottom line for your small businesses is sales,” Export-Import Bank President Fred Hochberg said during the event. “Our products, our experts, our entire agency, it’s all here to break down the barriers that hold you back from winning global sales.”

Really?  The ExImBank is in the business of product design and management skill?  I thought the ExImBank lent credit at taxpayer's risk to welfare queens overseas who in turn buy products from welfare queens in the USA, like Boeing and Microsoft.  No?

No.  ExImBank harms the USA economy by allowing non-viable businesses to undercut viable businesses who have built market without welfare queenism.  But the policy of the hegemon is "get big or get out" so the effect, destroying viable businesses, is consistent with the stated goal.  When the stated goal is destruction, the means destructive, and the results destructive, at what point do you begin to take the hegemon seriously?

All free trade is unilateral.  You never need an agreement to initiate free trade.  "Free trade agreement" is oxymoronic.  Trade deficits do not matter, but "free trade" and "industrial policies" do so distort investment that poverty, war and injustice follow.  Econ 101.

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