Another FT jeremiad! This time from a Mr. Strain who truly strains the essence of political economy! For this dimwit, deficits do not matter (!); they make consumers rich (! - dear oh dear!); and manufacturing is sheer "nostalgia for the past"! Try telling somebody who holds a loaded gun... that you won't hand him the butter!

"Vice-president JD Vance argues that Trump “believes in economic self-sufficiency”. Well, to see the benefits of such self-sufficiency, look to North Korea. Still, Vance is right. Trump is a true mercantilist who views trade deficits with hostility. But his tariffs should not be expected to cut the deficit, which is driven by the fact the US invests more than it saves. Look again to his first term, which saw the US current account deficit rise by 18 per cent from the first quarter of 2017 to the first quarter of 2020.

Moreover, we should not pay special attention to manufacturing or be excessively concerned about the trade deficit. The average wage of a service-sector worker overtook the average manufacturing wage in late 2018. Misplaced nostalgia for an imagined past and the rank politics of swing states are not good reasons to try to move workers from higher-paying jobs to lower-paying jobs.

Similarly, the trade deficit means the US can consume more than it produces. This is a good thing. Deficits offer consumers greater product variety and give US businesses a competitive edge by allowing workers to focus on higher value-added productive activities. Again, we should not wish for American workers to return to the days of sewing tennis shoes together in factories."