By any measure, the Trump victory was decisive. As the dust settles, while much remains uncertain, some things are also clearer. Donald J Trump is obsessed with trade. More specifically, he’s obsessed with the bilateral trade balances of the United States. Bizarrely, he sees every deficit as a measure of loss. Frozen in a zero-sum mindset where every winner is balanced by a loser, the President-elect is determined to turn deficits into surpluses.  Of course, this is nonsense. Since at least the time of Smith and especially Ricardo, we have known that trade is the positive-sum engine of prosperity. As…

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