Comments for The Washington Post Doesn't Know that the Trade Deficit Is Affected by Imports at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 5 out of 5 comments http://www.cepr.net Thu, 23 May 2013 00:07:52 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/the-washington-post-doesnt-know-that-the-trade-deficit-is-affected-by-imports#comment-19605 "In fact, in order to get the deficit down to a more sustainable level we will almost certainly need both higher exports and lower imports." Mathematically, this is certainly not true. The deficit declines if the dollar value of exports rises faster than the dollar value of imports. There is a fairly large range of possible range of import and export volumes over which that could happen. In September of last year, for instance, both imports and exports rose, but the deficit fell because imports rose more slowly than exports. You may have meant to write something that's true, but what you wrote is simply wrong. - kharris Mon, 15 Oct 2012 06:32:52 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/the-washington-post-doesnt-know-that-the-trade-deficit-is-affected-by-imports#comment-19571 It's a day later. Alas. - urban legend Sat, 13 Oct 2012 07:55:19 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/the-washington-post-doesnt-know-that-the-trade-deficit-is-affected-by-imports#comment-19559 I wish Dean would explain how we are going to squeeze more devaluation out of the dollar when (1) it already has declined significantly since 2002 (with little apparent benefit in the trade balance) and (2) our relative position depends on other countries acceding to our actions without countering measures. What is the practical pathway to a positive result that is available? - urban legend Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:57:34 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/the-washington-post-doesnt-know-that-the-trade-deficit-is-affected-by-imports#comment-19551 I don't think it should just be claimed that there is an "over-valuation" without a supporting argument. It should be easy to show that in Norway or Switzerland or Japan the currency is overvalued. But in China a claim that the national currency is overvalued should surely be considered skeptically. This doesn't mean that even in China it shouldn't be claimed that the currency should be lower yet, the point is rather that "over-valued" without qualification implies over-valued from both an internal and external perspective. - Brian Dell Fri, 12 Oct 2012 12:50:44 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/the-washington-post-doesnt-know-that-the-trade-deficit-is-affected-by-imports#comment-19533 If the WP believes that exports mean more jobs then do they think that imports mean fewer jobs. - Galludor Fri, 12 Oct 2012 05:15:42 +0100