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Open original source ↗US is also 26% of global GDP . So comparing the 30% US share of global consumption with the US share of global population (4%) is nonsense and is like comparing apples and oranges. The main reason the US share of global consumption is so high is that it has also has the largest global share of GDP, as simple as that as opposed to that long list of mostly irrelevant favors. The US share of global consumption is slightly higher than its share of GDP is because we run a current/trade account deficits mostly driven not by higher investment rates but lower private and public savings rates than most countries. Our especially large fiscal deficit - very negative public savings - is highly correlated with our trade deficits, ie twin deficits on the fiscal and external side. Dollar strength is only very partially the cause of such external deficit as fiscal deficits are to a very large extent exogenous and independent of any dollar strength. If anything over the medium term fiscal deficits should weaken the dollar as they cause ever larger trade deficits. So blaming the trade deficit on a strong dollar is only very partially true; mkay of the US current account deficit is driven by a structural Savings-Investment imbalance, not the “unfair” trade or currency policies of our trade partners. Until we spend less -relative to our income - and save more in the private and public sector - our trade deficits will remain even if large tariffs are imposed. That is the lesson of the first Trump tariff barrage of 2019-19. Since then our external deficits have increased , not decreased! Case rested !
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The US is 4% of the world population but roughly 30% of global consumption. Tariffs work for us precisely because we have the most desirable consumer market on earth and can force concessions in a way no other country can https://t.co/ZTJFHkx3vT
esaagar ↗