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123 points harambae | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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rgmerk ◴[] No.44462229[source]
It seems that no one is prepared to point out the obvious - devaluation of the dollar is a cut in American living standards.
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spencerflem ◴[] No.44462298[source]
Totally agreed. My only hope is that the evil bastards who willed this to happen bear the suffering more.
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corimaith ◴[] No.44462722[source]
Those evil bastards are also most central bankers around the world that agree that the incredibly unbalanced balance of trade today needs to be rebalanced. America is consuming too much, and the world is saving too much. So yes, your living standards do need to go down for the sake of the greater global macroeconomic stability.

Contrary to what xkcd or NYT might tell you, actual economic institutions like the IMF and the World Bank are coigzant of the issues caused by the status quo and largely view the Trumpian diagnosis, if not the horrid execution, as correct.

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munksbeer ◴[] No.44463859[source]
> the incredibly unbalanced balance of trade

The US sells billions of dollars of digital services to the rest of the world each year. Did Trump and co include netflix, aws, azure, etc etc in their "unbalanced trade"?

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corimaith ◴[] No.44464170[source]
The Current Account Deficit includes goods and services.
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lossolo ◴[] No.44465333[source]
EU-US goods and services trade is balanced: the difference between EU exports to the US and US exports to the EU stood at €48 billion in 2023; the equivalent of just 3% of the total trade between the EU and the US.

Total bilateral trade in goods between the EU and the US reached €851 billion in 2023. The EU exported €503 billion of goods to the US market, while importing €347 billion; this resulted in a goods trade surplus of €157 billion for the EU.

Total bilateral trade in services between the EU and the US was worth €746 billion in 2023. The EU exported €319 billion of services to the US, while importing €427 billion from the US; this resulted in a services trade deficit of €109 billion for the EU.

source: https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/eu-trade-relationships-cou...

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1. corimaith ◴[] No.44465967[source]
So they are running a deficit; Nonetheless, bilateral balances don't tell much without understanding the larger context of the total balances of each country and how proportionate they are relative to the global sum.

The matter of fact is that nearly every major economy is running a surplus, it is really on the USA and some countries like UK that is holding up the deficit side. Whether you think this arrangement is good or not is a matter of debate, but many economists would agree it's not good or sustainable, nor should it be occurring in the first place. Surplus countries should have strengthening currencies, deficit countries weakening ones under natural conditions. This is not happening due to very specific policies that surplus nations have imposed, at the burden of deficit nations.