There is a phenomenon that is often overlooked—the staggering scale of the U.S. annual trade deficit. In 2023, the goods and services deficit exceeded $770 billion, and this situation has persisted for decades. At first glance, it seems unreasonable, but upon closer examination, you'll find that it's not accidental.

Basically, there are three underlying drivers: First, the dollar's status as the reserve currency gives the U.S. a special advantage. The U.S. can print money directly to purchase goods globally, a capability no other country possesses. Second, the consumer culture—the American preference for high consumption and low savings—continually brings in overseas goods to meet this demand. Coupled with the global division of industrial labor, high-end sectors (chips, finance, software) are firmly controlled by the U.S., while low- and mid-end manufacturing has long shifted to Asia, making import dependence hard to eliminate.

The impact of this phenomenon is also quite subtle. In the short term, cheap imported goods suppress prices, benefiting ordinary consumers, but domestic workers suffer. From a long-term perspective, it's even more interesting—the trade deficit reinforces the dollar cycle. When foreign companies earn dollars, they buy U.S. debt to store these dollars, which lowers the U.S. government's financing costs, allowing the fiscal deficit to continue supporting the economy.

Therefore, the core issue isn't rooted in a single factor but in the design of the U.S. economic structure and the global monetary system itself. Trying to resolve this solely through tariffs or exchange rate pressure is essentially treating the symptoms, not the root cause.