Great thread. Great inputs.

Fuchs: Check your math. If the US trade imbalance is 25%. It only needs to change it by 12.5% if output is substitutional to inbound trade.

The magic of international trade.

The US has so many more resources (arable but unused land, underground deposits, water, etc...) but it is almost like an unrecognized "Resource Curse."

Because we don't recognize it, we take few steps to counter it. Because it is so abundant, we sometimes squander what we have.

My math: The US still has so many more relative resources and advantages that it is just cruel to watch how badly they are being mangled and abused.

Fortunately. the current idiots do little that cannot be rectified as long as they stop before we reach the crisis stages like the British Empire did at or about WWI (when it cost more than they had, and was worth less than it cost).