Dear WSJ: Morici is Wrong on Trade Deficit

Editor, The Wall Street Journal

200 Liberty Street

New York, NY 10281

To the Editor:

Peter Morici asserts that America's trade deficit with China causes "a huge drain on the demand for U.S.-made goods and services. The absence of reciprocal free trade is an important reason the U.S. economy is in its current mess," (Letters [1], Feb. 11).

Untrue. Dollars the Chinese do not spend on U.S.-made goods and services are invested in dollar-denominated assets. These investments raise demand for U.S. output just as would more direct expenditures on goods and services.

Consider what happens, for example, if the Chinese buy shares of Microsoft, thus raising America's trade deficit with China. First, the American sellers of these shares get more dollars to spend on U.S.-made goods and services. It's economically irrelevant if the persons buying these outputs are from Seattle or from Shanghai. Second, Microsoft's cost of capital falls, making that company more likely to expand operations, or at least less likely to contract them.

Concerns about the U.S. trade deficit are unwarranted.

Sincerely,

Donald J. Boudreaux

Don Boudreaux is the Chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University and a Business & Media Institute adviser.