Earlier quoted context omitted.
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> Zeiss Since when is Zeiss Swiss and not German? Also if ASML is partially US owned so are all major US tech companies partially “EU owned” in a similar way.
Bayer owns Monsanto for instance.
Why does the U.S. always run a trade deficit?
521–530 of 814 posts
Re: Why does the U.S. always run a trade deficit?
#522Earlier quoted context omitted.
US doesn't just get political influence. It gets massive amounts of products and services enabling the US residents live well beyond their means. China for example, sends huge number of electronics and all kind of other consumer goods that Chinese produce by sweating in 12 hours shifts in 6 day work weeks in exchange for imaginary numbers. US is definitely not the victim here. There's the risk of this system stop wor…
> It gets massive amounts of products and services enabling the US residents live well beyond their means. What does this mean really? That is their means. For a somewhat topical example, people of Australia get access to cheap medications (in part because they pay to subsidize the cost of them but also because) their government negotiates with pharmaceutical corporations to pay lower prices. This kind of negotiation…
> What does this mean really? That is their means.
Kind of, yes. Also if you take away other's people assets by force you can say you live by your means because you produce violence.
That's a matter of terminology, the real thing to be considered is the sustainability of this system.
If this setup can be sustained perpetually then yes, it's sort of within your means. If gradually deplete some reserves (gold or trust or domestic stability due to rising inequality) then it can be argued that you live beyond your means.
Re: Why does the U.S. always run a trade deficit?
#523Using a national currency as the de facto global reserve guarantees a trade deficit for that country. No one else can manufacture USD's, so other countries have to acquire them by shaping their economies to supply goods and services demanded by the US. They can then use these earned dollars to transact with other countries, as the US itself insists they do. For the US, this is a simple trade off - gain massive politi…
I mean, the SDR exists, and currency baskets are not new or unheard of. USD has mostly been where it is because the alternatives are a lot less appealing: * CHF - they explicitly would rather not be a strong reserve currency and threaten to print money whenever it starts strengthening * JPY - they also don't want a strong reserve currency because it would tank their export led economy, plus Japan's debt and economy m…
Compared to CHF and EUR the USD was on a downfall for a while now, more or less Corona or the last trump era.
The new thing is that it's really getting worthless comparingly up to the point where it's not interesting anymore to keep any USD and no reason in sight to think it might get better
Re: Why does the U.S. always run a trade deficit?
#524Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see this tossed around but no one ever seems to point out that EU has similar numbers, which are about half, but still extremely higher than global average; and much more so in the richer countries of the EU (per capita of course)
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> I'm not that concern for the US: lifestyle may go down a bit, but the US is a country of do'ers.
Yeah, drug do'ers.
Re: Why does the U.S. always run a trade deficit?
#525Earlier quoted context omitted.
> In isolation an $8,000 EV looks cheap to us earning a salary in the West, but that is still 1.7x the median household income (so half of all Chinese households have even less money to spend). You're looking at China the wrong way. A better way to view it is as two countries - a developed urban one, tied to a developing, rural one. The latter is currently bigger than the former, so it drives any median wealth metric…
> You're looking at China the wrong way. A better way to view it is as two countries - a developed urban one, tied to a developing, rural one This is how I am looking at China, and this is ALL THE MORE reason that development needs to be spread out much more equally. Urban China isn't that much richer either - median urban household income is CNY 43,000/$6,000 [0] - so on par with Thailand and half that of Malaysia's…
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Re: Why does the U.S. always run a trade deficit?
#526Earlier quoted context omitted.
For other countries USD is something they have to work for or sell something to acquire it. If they screw up they may end up in crisis being unable to obtain USD. Borrowing in their own currency will be much more limited and borrowing in USD much more costly. USA on the other hand can just print it out of thin air and because the global USD liquidity is huge they can do it for much longer without facing the consequen…
Many countries control their currency and can print money to pay debts, and can control their fiscal and monetary policies to best gain advantage for themselves. And they do. US can do some things more, bigger, longer, etc., for various reasons. Just like Australia can do more, bigger, longer, etc., than Tonga. I don't really see anything profound being said here. USA might be in some advantageous position now, and i…
The reserve currency status makes all the difference on how much of all this you can do and under what conditions. That's the difference and that's why US had it so good for so long and now is due for such a large correction. Also, US is blessed with huge natural reserves, didn't actually waste it all on drugs and alcohol but did in fact created some of the best institutions in many areas so maybe it wouldn't be that bad if the politics don't make it bad.
Re: Why does the U.S. always run a trade deficit?
#527Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US isn’t forcing anyone else to use USD. People around the world use USD because they are confident it will help them buy products and services they want in the future.
This. Fundamentally, the USD is the global reserve currency because the US is seen by the rest of the world as the most stable entity able to guarantee the future value of its currency: It's militarily powerful enough to guarantee its independence, and legally predictable as a "rule of law" nation and a stable democracy. If you want to park your assets anywhere, the safest bet is US treasuries. Everything else follow…
Or because they designed they currency and economy to get there.
Then one orange guy took about 3 months to break the trust they built into their currency for many many years.
Re: Why does the U.S. always run a trade deficit?
#528Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see this tossed around but no one ever seems to point out that EU has similar numbers, which are about half, but still extremely higher than global average; and much more so in the richer countries of the EU (per capita of course)
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Whats stopping you? You sound like jaded old fool who made some serious irreversible mistakes in their lives, and now just overflowing with regret and hate.
EU may be foolish in some aspects, I agree there, but life quality as in actual daily levels of stress, happiness, quality of life, quality and costs of basic services that take care of weak (which one day you will inevitably become too) is stellar and parsecs better what people in same position in life can rely on ie in US. Or crime level. Or free decent education.
But we have freedom, you don't like a place then trivially move, if your skills are worth its salt. You can spend rest of your life in society that has different priorities and thrive there, if you can.
Re: Why does the U.S. always run a trade deficit?
#529Earlier quoted context omitted.
> In isolation an $8,000 EV looks cheap to us earning a salary in the West, but that is still 1.7x the median household income (so half of all Chinese households have even less money to spend). You're looking at China the wrong way. A better way to view it is as two countries - a developed urban one, tied to a developing, rural one. The latter is currently bigger than the former, so it drives any median wealth metric…
> You're looking at China the wrong way. A better way to view it is as two countries - a developed urban one, tied to a developing, rural one This is how I am looking at China, and this is ALL THE MORE reason that development needs to be spread out much more equally. Urban China isn't that much richer either - median urban household income is CNY 43,000/$6,000 [0] - so on par with Thailand and half that of Malaysia's…
>> ...median urban household income...
You seem to miss the word 'disposable' when you cited the chart and table in [0] you linked to.
China's nominal GDP per capita is already on par with Malaysia's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi...
Does your analysis on the relative standards of living of China's and Malaysia's populations still stand?
It's been more than 10 years since I last visited China. I've been to Malaysia a couple of times not too long ago. From what I see from random social media clips of regular people, their urban standards of living do not differ much.
Re: Why does the U.S. always run a trade deficit?
#530It’s amazing how everybody misses the wood for the trees. Where else is China et al going to sell all the stuff they can produce via their physical overinvestment that was driven by the “export led growth” mantra? There is no untapped source of demand anywhere in the world. There isn’t the income. All they could do is produce less and cause their economies of scale to go into reverse. So instead they sell stuff for a…
Is it not true that China has enough domestic demand to not rely on exports? That was supposed to be the whole point of dual circulation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_circulation