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> This calculation assumes that persistent trade deficits are due to a combination of tariff and non-tariff factors that prevent trade from balancing

I love this sentence. It means literally nothing

A callback to these two books that must contain the sum of all human knowledge: https://i.imgur.com/wf53LHK.jpeg

The sentence as a whole is meaningful, which you can see by excluding 'to a combination of tariff and non-tariff':

> This calculation assumes that persistent trade deficits are due factors that prevent trade from balancing

The 'tariff and non-tariff' phrase is _technically_ superfluous but, subtextually, it implies there are such non-tariff reasons.

A persistent imbalance is due to factors that prevent balance? And those factors can be of type T or not of type T? That’s slightly tautological :)