You can't always get what you want

摘要

THE currents of trade, President Donald Trump accepts, will ebb and flow: "Sometimes they can be up and sometimes we can be up," he said in an interview with The Economist on May 4th. A long-term trade deficit, though—such as that between America and Mexico, which ran to $56bn in 2016-is bad. Bad because it shows that a poor trade deal has been made (see next story); bad because money is being thrown away. Achieving more balanced trade, Mr Trump and his team say, will, along with cutting taxes and encouraging more business investment, create jobs and boost growth.