All you need to know about trade ... in 70 words

Courtesy of former Secretary of State George Schultz and Harvard professor Marty Feldstein in today's WP:

If a country consumes more than it produces, it must import more than it exports. That’s not a rip-off; that’s arithmetic. 

If we manage to negotiate a reduction in the Chinese trade surplus with the United States, we will have an increased trade deficit with some other country. 

Federal deficit spending, a massive and continuing act of dissaving, is the culprit. Control that spending and you will control trade deficits.