DEFICIT DESCRIPTION
07/01/2025 |
As recently as 2011, the US ran a trade deficit in petroleum products of $330 billion/year. The trade deficit that year was $445 billion. By 2019, due to the fracking revolution, the petroleum trade deficit was zero, yet the trade deficit was virtually unchanged at $441 billion. This is because the trade deficit is totally dependent on net savings by firms, households and the government, and utterly unrelated to trade.