We interrupt all of the celebration of tariffs to rebut a common economic fallacy that many of our Republican friends keep repeating. It is the myth that trade deficits are associated with American economic decline.

This myth is ably rebutted in a great new book by former Texas Senator Phil Gramm and George Mason University economist Donald Boudreaux entitled “The Triumph of Economic Freedom”.

This chart from that book shows:

“There is no correlation between trade deficits and job creation…The trend of employment growth in America did not change when the United States started running annual trade deficits in 1976. Investment in America fuels job creation no less than does demand for American exports.”

We are all for a level tariff playing field, but trade deficits are a byproduct of US capital investment dominance.