Those who ignore the effects of long run trade deficits may be confusing David Ricardo's principle of comparative advantage with Adam Smith's principle of absolute advantage, specifically ignoring that latter. The economist Paul Craig Roberts notes that the comparative advantage principles developed by David Ricardo do not hold where the factors of production are internationally mobile.Global labor arbitrage, a phenomenon described by economist Stephen S. Roach, where one country exploits the cheap labor of another, would be a case of absolute advantage that is not mutually beneficial.
Since the stagflation of the 1970s, the U.S. economy has been characterized by slower GDP growth. In 1985, the U.S. began its growing trade deficit with China. Over the long run, nations with trade surpluses tend also to have a savings surplus while the U.S. has been plagued by persistently lower savings rates than its trading partners which tend to have trade surpluses with the U.S. Germany, France, Japan, and Canada have maintained higher savings rates than the U.S. over the long run.[9] Some economists believe that GDP and employment can be dragged down by an over-large deficit over the long run.[10][11] Wealth-producing primary sector jobs in the U.S. such as those in manufacturing and computer software have often been replaced by much lower paying wealth-consuming jobs such those in retail and government in the service sector when the economy recovered from recessions.[12][13][5] Some economists contend that the U.S. is borrowing to fund consumption of imports while accumulatiing unsustainable amounts of debt