In a message dated 12/15/02 9:40:19 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: << * Japan's trade has continued to expand. Its current account surpluses totalled $US987 billion in the "disastrous" 1990s. This was nearly 2.4 times the total recorded in the 1980s when Japan was already seen as the "unstoppable juggernaut" of world trade. >>
So what? I run a 100% trade deficit with my supermarket, my health club, my barber, my gas station, my landlord, etc. I'd venture that since I'm close to the poorest person on the list, that most other members here run much larger absolute deficits and yet are much better off than I am. The notion that trade deficits and surpluses mean something is silly. During the 1920s some anti-trade American nativists railed against US trade surpluses because such surpluses meant that foreigners were sending us "worthless pieces of paper" in return for which we were sending them valuable assets like cars and steel. Now people with the same perspective rail against Japanese surpluses as hurting the Americans (and other non-Japanse). David
