WAFI

I realize that we can't expect the President of the United States to understand or give a shit about complicated subjects like money and deficits and trade, but I would hope that the readers of this blog all understand what our Idiot-in-Chief clearly does not.

The BUDGET DEFICIT is the difference between what the government takes in (taxes and all other sources of income) and what it spends. So if the government takes in $40 in taxes, and spends $55 on government services, we have a ONE YEAR BUDGET DEFICIT OF $15. Deficits are possible because the government can (a) borrow money, and (b) print money.

If you add this year's budget deficit to the deficit from last year and all the other years in the past, you come up with the entire NATIONAL DEBT. The debt, in other words, is the sum of past deficits. In the years when the government runs a surplus (takes in more than in spends), the debt goes down instead of up.

When people in the US purchase $500 worth of stuff from China, and sell $350 worth of stuff to China, we have a TRADE DEFICIT with China of $150. Adding our plus/minus trade with all the countries in the world makes up our overall trade deficit. Since 1989, the US has had a trade deficit every year--meaning we have purchased more from other countries that we have sold to them.

What is the relationship between BUDGET DEFICIT (or national debt) and the TRADE DEFICIT?

None.

There is no relationship. None. Period. When one goes up, the other goes... we don't know. They're not related, remember?

Today, the President of the United States said, in a press conference during his meeting with the president of South Korea:

"The United States has trade deficits with many, many countries, and we cannot allow that to continue ... with South Korea right now, but we cannot allow that to continue. This is really a statement that I make about all trade: For many, many years the United States has suffered through massive trade deficits; that's why we have $20 trillion in debt."

If you'll recall from above, there is NO relationship between the TRADE deficit and the national DEBT. Trump is telling the Koreans that we need to reduce the trade deficit so as to reduce the debt. That is completely idiotic. It's like saying "I need to lose weight so I'm going to read more about trees."

WAFI.

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That's my contribution, for today, to the world of American English Acronyms. Hopefully it will catch on a be used widely.

WAFI.

What a fucking idiot.