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“Trade deficit” is particularly misleading because it means you’re receiving more stuff than you’re sending.

Yeah, even today I still have to think twice when I hear that term. I also liked the explanation about dumping!

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Yeah, that’s another ridiculous one.

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Right, but stopping the analysis there also leads to a simplistic understanding, which is where I think a lot of the mainstream business world has landed. Mankiw's section on trade in his principles textbook is a particularly enlightening glimpse into the mindset of the average businessperson, because it's the most popular econ textbook in the country and there's an odds-on chance that 1 in 2 people in business learned their econ from it.

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If people are actually thinking about what’s going on, it doesn’t matter much what terms they use.

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