Friday, September 07, 2007

"Balance" in trade balance is overrated

I bought a donut from Dunkin. In trade terms, I ran a deficit, Dunkin a surplus. Does Dunkin need to buy some good from me? Of course not. They're fine with my money, I'm OK with my donut. Trade balance (or, imbalance, for that matter) is a positive concept. Meaning, it is useful to describe what is going on between two parties -- or countries. It is not a matter of good or bad. So, this kind of news that we still have a trade imbalance with Russia (and implying that progress should be made to balance the account) is misleading.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

you get delish donuts, dunkin share holders get pieaces of paper called rupiah -- sounds good to me too! :):)

Anonymous said...

What is Indonesia really get except suffer cause by corruption in all aspects of this country life?