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Comment by mothballed | Hacker News Reader

OK so you import less American stuff. While still wanting to export the stuff you made to America.

So now you're tied up to Trump even more than before. Because you either traded your goods for US investments, or just pieces of paper that only continue to be worth something insofar as the US doesn't bungle their economic and geopolitical policies. Because those are the primary alternatives to settling the trade by getting goods/services back.

Why wouldn't you want to cash out and actually get stuff back from the US for the stuff you make for them, if you think the US is headed south? It's not like you're exporting to the US as a charity.

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after the threats of invasion: as far as I'm concerned the relationship is dead

to hell with the economic consequences

as a brit, I wouldn't be buying German products in 1939 either

To be fair, this is more like 1932.

This makes zero sense.

How does it not make sense? When you export things to other countries you expect something back in return of equal value, unless you're just doing it for charity. On a world stage the US imports more than it exports.

Obviously all the countries not choosing to settle it by balancing the imports with equally valued exports are still not just donating that difference away, so it must be going somewhere.

What did you think that must be? The only option is they must have kept that capital in the US if they didn't export the balance of their trade back out. Kept it in the US because for whatever reason they decided to invest it there rather than get goods/services in immediate exchange or invest in their own country. By increasing the trade deficit you're literally going stronger in on investing in what America is doing.

Doesn't your argument reveal the irrationality of the administrations’ tariff policy?

Yes, countries do not export goods as charity to the US. They get to hodl the Dollar. This huge demand for the Dollar has made it possible to print so many of them and still keep the value, giving the US a big advantage over any other currency.

But who is responsible for the trade deficit anyway? It's the US consumer, of course. No one is forcing them to buy all this stuff.

Now imagine yourself in the shoes of a poor country exporting textiles to the US. What are you to do to make the US administration happy? You can't afford American products, so your only choice is to stop selling to the US? How does that make any sense or help anyone?

mothballed's comment was probably flagged because they used the R slur

It's not just about physical goods, the rest of the world buys American services and it's debt

The US is acting irrational. It causes a bunch of reactions, one of them being downright fear (because of e.g. a military threat, but not only).

And then you seem surprised that those reactions are not always rational? How does that work?

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