But the trade deficits in and of themselves are just a reflection of the combination of globalized production, runway spending and lack of savings.
We have shipped off manufacturing to other countries. In most cases even when we buy what is on the surface and American branded product it is assembled overseas it registers as an import on our trade balance.
In a strict technical sense many economists attribuite the bulk of our trade deficits to lack of savings. Since we don't save we consume at a much greater rate than other countries, which means we import more from them than they do from us...
The root of it all is that we simply comsume more than we produce and we have been able to do that due to years of borrowing and easy money.