Without starting a new topic, I suppose this is the best place for this info.
Everything you wanted to know (and probably way more) about trade deficits and what they actually mean about our economy.
Here's the summary from the end of the piece (titled "Things Everyone Should Know About Trade Deficits"):
So, trade deficits donβt hurt jobs or growth, arenβt trade or economic scoreboards (especially bilateral ones), and canβt be fixed by things like tariffs or subsidies. Theyβre not a drag on growth, and they donβt represent lost American wealth or a debt we must repay. Trade balances can tell us stuff about an economyβbut much less about a nationβs trade policy and much more about its citizens spending and saving, as well as the economic and noneconomic forces affecting those millions of individual decisions. In the United States, much of the stuff our trade deficit reflects isnβt a problem and, in the case of our attractiveness as a global investment destination or the U.S. dollarβs importance in international commerce, is decidedly a good thing. And outside of a recession or the world ditching the dollar, government efforts to shrink the trade deficit will fail unless they fundamentally change Americansβ savings and investment decisions or unless Washington finally gets its fiscal house in order. Indeed, if policymakers and wonksβdespite all the aboveβstill feel compelled to reduce the U.S. trade deficit, eliminating our bloated federal deficits would be the most straightforward and benign way to do it.
Funny how none of the trade deficit worriers ever mention that.