Trade Deficits, Boon or Bust?

[Noogies]

Originally Posted by RickeyM

Actually it's the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Right?

[donquixote99]

Right. The little committee of the Chiefs of Staff of the Army,Air Force, and Navy, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps, and I suppose the chief of the Space Force, whatever they call him. The highest ranking commanders of all the military services, in other words. If this little committee all gets together and agrees on something, they have quite a lot of power to make it happen. There is some hope that they will all agree at some point to rescue the constitutional republic that we used to have in this country. Strikes me as kind of iffy, however.

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by Dondilion

In my heart.

Fair enough.

Let's imagine you are the nation of Sandy Arabia. Your natural resources consist of a few hundred square miles of sand dunes, one oasis with date palms, and, below ground, about 100 billion barrels of oil. So you have two basic choices. The population can live as subsistence date farmers. You don't have much variety in your diet, but you do enjoy perfect sovereignty. You produce all your own basic needs, no other nation has power over your subsistence on dates.

Choice two, you can pump oil and sell it to the United States for $10 billion a year. You take some of that money and by catered meals from France for the whole population, since you find French food to be the best. France buys no oil though, they have nuclear power and electric cars. So you have a horrendous trade deficit with France--you're buying lots from them, they buy nothing from you. So your sovereignty is lost. To avoid this calamity, should you all stick to eating dates?

[Dondilion]

So with all that oil money one would expect the Saudis to make stuff to meet their basic needs? They should invite the Chinese to show them how.
If they do not have that as a project then they do not expect to be a sovereign nation.

[RickeyM]

g

Originally Posted by Dondilion

So with all that oil money one would expect the Saudis to make stuff to meet their basic needs? They should invite the Chinese to show them how.
If they do not have that as a project then they do not expect to be a sovereign nation.

They have more money than God so they don't feel the need to make things. When you have $$$ like that someone will always be ready to sell you stuff.

[RickeyM]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

Fair enough.

Let's imagine you are the nation of Sandy Arabia. Your natural resources consist of a few hundred square miles of sand dunes, one oasis with date palms, and, below ground, about 100 billion barrels of oil. So you have two basic choices. The population can live as subsistence date farmers. You don't have much variety in your diet, but you do enjoy perfect sovereignty. You produce all your own basic needs, no other nation has power over your subsistence on dates.

Choice two, you can pump oil and sell it to the United States for $10 billion a year. You take some of that money and by catered meals from France for the whole population, since you find French food to be the best. France buys no oil though, they have nuclear power and electric cars. So you have a horrendous trade deficit with France--you're buying lots from them, they buy nothing from you. So your sovereignty is lost. To avoid this calamity, should you all stick to eating dates?

This is how you take your mind off a horrendous trade deficit.

[Dondilion]

Originally Posted by RickeyM

g
They have more money than God so they don't feel the need to make things. When you have $$$ like that someone will always be ready to sell you stuff.

Yeah like the US with tons of $$$ Saudi is not inclined to make its own medicine.

[Chicks]

No, Trade With China Did Not Kill the U.S. Economy
A new comprehensive review finds the negative effects of trade with China have been significantly exaggerated.

https://reason.com/2025/06/05/no-tra...e-u-s-economy/