Krugman Vs. History
24 April 2006
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Paul Krugman warns that America's recent string of trade deficits inevitably will trigger a painful economic reckoning ("CSI: Trade Deficit," April 24).
I wonder. America ran a trade deficit pretty much every year from the first English settlement at Jamestown until World War I.* Economically, that was a darned successful 300-year period.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* William A. Niskanen, "The Determinants of US. Capital Imports," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, July 1991, pp. 36-49.
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Tuesday February 6, 2007 at 7:43am