If you’re like me, you pace the floor every night worrying about the trade deficit between your state and other states. Why, I can’t tell you the number of nights I go sleepless every month worrying about the trade deficits between my state of Virginia and other states.
For example, take Florida. I don’t know what the figures are, but I’m willing to bet that Virginians spend more money in Florida than Floridians spend in Virginia. Of course, this is just a hunch but I would assume that Disney World and Florida beaches are more attractive and more expensive destinations than Mount Vernon and Arlington National Cemetery.
It might help my anxiety if government officials actually published the trade data between Virginia and Florida and, well, for that matter, between Virginia and every other state. Maybe we run trade surpluses with other states that help to alleviate the presumed trade deficit with Florida. I’ll bet North Dakotans spend more money here in Virginia than we spend over there.
So, why doesn’t the government publish reports of trade deficits and trade surpluses between the states? I can only assume that the government doesn’t think that people need to know that information. But isn’t it possible that some states could go bankrupt by running trade deficits with other states? Isn’t this something that state officials in such states should know, so that they can do something to alleviate the situation before it is too late?
In reality, no one, including me, paces the floor over the trade deficits and trade surpluses that their state runs with other states. No one cares. It just doesn’t matter. No state has ever gone bankrupt or disappeared by running a trade deficit with another state. Life goes on, and no one concerns himself or herself with trade deficits and trade surpluses between the states.
So, what would happen if the federal government stopped publishing data on trade deficits and trade surpluses that the U.S. is running with other countries? It would be one of the greatest things that could ever happen! It would mean that countless Americans, including economists, government officials, and reporters and commentators in the mainstream press, would no longer be pacing the floor at night and experiencing sleepless nights over the trade deficits that the United States runs with certain countries. Perhaps most important, it would mean that President Trump would no longer have one of his nonsensical justifications for his nonsensical tariffs and economic protectionism.
