The Trade Deficit: The Missing Part of the Story of Greater Room for Budget Deficits

Neil Irwin had an interesting Upshot piece pointing out that concerns about budget deficits have receded dramatically in recent years. This is of course true, as politicians of both parties have largely given up their concerns about the deficit. Many prominent economists have also moved away from previous positions that held that budget deficits were a major problem.

While the government can clearly run much larger budget deficits, without negative economic consequences, than many economists...