The funny thing about the trade deficit issue is the element of mutually assured economic destruction it entails. True the US consumer spends too much and saves too little, but Asian currencies are being kept artificially undervalued for strategic reasons, and it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to recognize that US expenditure largely goes to support the growth of Asian export oriented economies. Stop the music, the dollar takes a dive and growth on both sides of the Pacific stops.
The issue of course is how to let the air out of the bubble slowly, but on the other hand, its sort of a good thing that in the short term the economies of powerful nations are becoming so interdependent, since it provides the men with guns with an additional reason to think twice before screwing with the program. Will it ultimately work that way? I dunno.
