If we count only the import side and not the export side of re-exports, as some in the Administration have suggested, we might as well go “whole hog” and redefine the trade balance completely: Let’s count imports, but not exports.
Figure 1: The trade balance defined as net exports/GDP (blue), and the trade balance excluding exports (red). Source: GDP advance release for 2016Q4, and author’s calculations.
[Correction to title: it’s been pointed out that the National Guard will not necessarily be empowered to actually deport individuals; they can only have “authority to investigate, identify, apprehend, arrest, detain and conduct searches”. The actual deportation (transportation to port or border) would presumably be undertaken by other agencies. MDC 2/18 10:51AM Pacific]
What are the fiscal and economic implications?
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Judy Shelton argues that “Free trade needs sound money”:
…[T]he time has come to develop a comprehensive approach to international monetary reform compatible with genuine free trade under free-market conditions. If markets are to function properly, money needs to convey accurate price signals; that won’t happen as long as governments can manipulate exchange rates.
Judy Shelton on currency manipulation.
From Bloomberg:
President Donald Trump’s administration is considering a new tactic to discourage China from undervaluing its currency that falls short of a direct confrontation…
That’s the title of a new post written by me, on Econofact. Short answer to the question posed: not likely just the Mexicans…
From the article:
Officials said the raids targeted known criminals, but they also netted some immigrants without criminal records, an apparent departure from similar enforcement waves during the Obama administration. Last month, Trump substantially broadened the scope of who the Department of Homeland Security can target to include those with minor offenses or no convictions at all.
That’s the title of a new European Central Bank working paper (coauthored with Yin-Wong Cheung (City U HK), Antonio Garcia Pascual (Barclay’s), and Yi Zhang (U. Wisc.)) just released.
From Head and Mayer, “Brands in motion: How frictions shape multinational production”, an examination of how the auto industry fares if Nafta is terminated:
In the end-of-NAFTA scenario, depicted in orange in Figure 7, all three members reduce [auto] production.
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