wyndhy,

Well, as the U.S. balance of payments for trade in Goods and Services has been in deficit for 35 of the last 36 years, I’d suspect that if there was some essential suckiness in running a trade deficit, said suckiness would have shown up by now.

Let us make the assumption that running a trade deficit is bad. How has that badness been realized? Are Americans worse off now than they were in 1970? If so, it what way(s)? Is the unemployment rate higher than ever before? Has life expectancy decreased? I note that your concerns above are about what might happen, not what has happened.

Let us invert the argument. Are you suggesting that were the U.S. were to run a trade surplus, that surplus would suck for all the countries which would, by definition, be running a trade deficit with the U.S.?

A net outflow of money from the U.S. has paid for by a corresponding inflow of goods and services. Are you suggesting that Americans be prevented from purchasing those goods at the lowest price? If so, why?

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Eudaimonia