Attention Economy


Saturday, December 24, 2016

Trumponomics and the Global Economy

An interesting Bloomberg piece correctly notes:
““The policies of the Trump administration are likely to lead to a strong dollar and a widening U.S. current account deficit,” Stein notes in a report last week. “Some—exporters to the U.S. (Canada, the Eurozone, China, Korea), oil and commodity exporters—will benefit to a greater or lesser degree.”
Stein draws this perspective from what’s known as sectoral financial balances. Put simply, national current accounts reflect the interaction between savings and investment; the amount saved in an economy equals the amount invested, as a matter of accounting. If corporate America invests, for example, and neither the household nor the public sectors increase their savings by a corresponding level, the current account balance must, by definition, fall into negative territory, mirroring a rise in net inflows of savings from abroad.”

Updates: 
Risk of a Global Trade War in 2017 - Yale economist Stephen Roach offers a warning:
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-trade-war-with-china-by-stephen-s--roach-2016-12

Paul Krugman on the Risks of a Trade War
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/26/opinion/and-the-trade-war-came.html