Trade Deficit: "Running the numbers on the nation’s other dangerous deficit'

from vindy...............

"Now comes the other deficit. It’s a cousin to the budget deficit, and it, too, has been taking bites out of the economy for decades. During that time, some people ignored the balance of trade deficit and others deluded themselves into thinking it was a good thing because it allowed consumers to buy lots of stuff cheap. But no matter how cheap something is, a consumer needs income to buy it, and the best way to accrue income is to have a job.

Well, by one estimate, every $1 billion in trade deficits costs 12,000 American jobs. Another estimate puts the loss at 8,000. So for the sake of argument, let’s agree that 10,000 is reasonable. That’s $100,000 per job.

That makes trade policy a major factor in economic growth and recovery.

And that makes the latest trade figures a very sobering bunch of numbers.

The U.S. trade deficit increased 4.4 percent in June; at $53.1 billion, that’s the largest imbalance in almost three years"...........READ MORE