Both Trump and China Are Mercantilists: Barro

choi

Robert Barro, Trump and China Share a Bad Idea on Trade. Imports are what we wants, and we pay for them with exports. Isn't getting more for less a good thing? Wall Street Journal, Apr 11, 2018 (op-ed).
https://www.wsj.com/articles/tru ... on-trade-1523399017
http://www.paywallnews.com/news/ ... rade.rkfQ4VoiM.html

My comment:
(a) "As Jason Furman, chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, put it to me recently, the U.S. economy is now the world’s largest and most successful hedge fund."

I do not know what Dr Furman (1970- ; PhD in economics 2004 from Harvard) means. I find nothing in the Web. I presume he will publish his observation in the future.
(b) I hope to know whether in Barro's view, chronic and huge trade or budget deficit will be harmful to a nation -- or whether either is self-corrective. I find no recent publication (in the past decade) of Barro's.