Budget Deficit Economics
“The same Washington policymakers who inveigh against the deficit want a strong dollar—clueless about the contradiction.” Dean Baker gives an Economics 101 lesson.
“The debate over the value of the dollar against the Chinese yuan is the latest episode in this silliness. The Washington tribal elite has been on the warpath against budget deficits in recent months. They have worked themselves into such a frenzy that nothing will stand in their way: neither concerns about unemployment, nor concerns about the well being of our elderly, nor even concerns about basic economic logic. The central problem stems from the simple accounting identity that national savings is equal to the broadly measured trade surplus.”
