There are other ways to organize U.S. international trade. The neoliberal free trade of recent decades and the trade restrictions of Trumpian tariffs are not the only options.
As of today, the U.S. government’s current deficit and debt are indeed currently at unprecedented levels for peacetime—once we account for them appropriately.
Mason Gaffney is professor of economics at the University of California, Riverside. He has been a journalist with TIME, Inc.; a researcher with Resources for the Future; the head of the British Columb